LA's Urban Forestry Goals Go Beyond Planting Trees. Here's How To Get Involved

In 2019, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti hired a new position. That role was a city forest officer who'd focus on integrating an equitable approach to the city's urban forestry goals.

Some of these goals came out of L.A.'s Green New Deal and included things like planting tens of thousands of new trees, significantly increasing tree coverage, and increasing urban forestry funding.

All these things seem fairly straightforward, but it's more complicated than you might think. Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic further complicated efforts. So what progress has been made?

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Planting trees

One of the urban forestry goals included planting 90,000 new trees throughout the city. Sounds easy, right? Wrong.

Research teams are working with the city to determine where tree planting should be prioritized and how to balance already existing infrastructure. As we all know, space is tight in L.A., particularly in communities that have less tree coverage.

"Even if we were to plant the existing locations, we, by and large, can only plant small trees in those three foot or four foot wide parkways, you know, the space between the curb and the sidewalk," says L.A. City Forest Officer Rachel Malarich, who joined Larry Mantle on LAist's daily news program, AirTalk.

Still, Malarich says tens of thousands of trees have been planted so far, and the planting doesn't stop once they've hit 90,000.

Tree inventory

Maybe more importantly, the city's been working on a current tree census, something that hasn't been done since the 1990s. The park portion was completed in 2021 and the street inventory is about 85% complete.

"It's hard to manage if we don't know what exactly we have, and that's going to tell us the species, the relative health of our trees, what size they are, what conditions they're growing in," Malarich says.

The city is keeping track of some of this data for the public. Click here (or below) to find out more about what trees are in your neighborhood.

Click for more details on the benefit of trees from TreeKeeper.

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Courtesy TreeKeeper

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Increasing tree canopy

Tree canopy, the shade provided by trees, is a big challenge. The city's goal is to increase it by at least 50% by 2028. That's a tall order. The research teams are working to decipher the most sustainable and effective way of doing it long term. Malarich says she wants to do it right, not fast.

When it comes to adding trees and coverage though, a big concern from residents is about maintenance and whether the city will be able to come back regularly for that work. That brings us to the issue of resources.

Urban forestry funding

A key recommendation from a needs assessment in 2018 called for an urban financing study in order to understand how much money the city should be spending on these efforts. The document is currently under review with hopes that it'll be published before the end of the year.

"I can kind of give a little bit of a spoiler — it says that we're probably spending a quarter of what we should on on our urban forest," Malarich says.

She says, overall they want to inspect trees every five to seven years and take care of structural pruning if needed, and that takes resources.

Community engagement

Malarich says her department plans to announce details for neighborhood workshops in about a month. She says collaborating with communities about their wants and needs is critical to creating a healthy urban forest.

There are also ways to request tree planting. The program is funded by the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Learn more at https://www.cityplants.org/.

Another thing to consider? Potentially joining the urban forestry workforce yourself. Malarich says there may be some great job opportunities in the future given the need for creating a greater workforce.