Tackling LA’s Urban Forestry Goals- One Tree at a Time

By: Noah Hernandez, Fall 2022

Hello everyone, my name is Noah, I am a junior majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Urban Sustainable Planning. This semester, I interned with City Plants, a private non-profit organization funded by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The organization’s mission is to provide free trees to historically disadvantaged communities through free tree giveaways and community tree-planting events. They currently partner with many public and private agencies to secure funding to grow the trees and provide for their care. City Plants is a small but mighty team that works closely with one another to maximize the number of trees that are planted in the city, as part of LA’s Green New Deal plan.

As for my work in the organization, I am a Policy and Communication Intern. I help the organization with their day-to-day operation. Though most of my work is remote, there has been an opportunity to do some in-person events as well. Online, some of my tasks include managing the front-end and back-end data on the tree request site and helping to create a bilingual glossary for forestry terms. My in-person work has consisted of canvassing for City Plants’ tree planting events, and I even had the chance to plant some trees! I have learned so much about urban forestry, government, non-profits, and community engagement while interning with City Plants.