Current Projects
United States
Washington, DC
Building Bridges Across the River is planting trees to grow produce to distribute to community members as part of the Community Supported Agriculture program, the Allen Chapel Food Pantry, and a family program at the National Children's Center School. These trees will provide a host of environmental benefits, while also providing access to fresh produce for families who need it most.
Jacksonville, FL
Greenscape of Jacksonville’s two-phase project, called “Plant a Tree, Grow a Community,” will use trees as green infrastructure and as a catalyst for community engagement. Phase 1 will be a tree planting in an historic city park in a neighborhood with a low tree equity score. Phase 2 will be a community fair that will provide information about careers in urban forestry, tree care (watering and pruning), financial literacy and a story booth.
Miami, FL
This planting site is a quarter-acre lot serving as an urban garden that is accessible to residents with most of the harvest prepared into meals for the surrounding undeserved community. Citizens for a Better South Florida will focus on ecological literacy, sensory therapy, and food literacy by enhancing hands-on experience of community members in the outdoor garden spaces located at the Green Haven Project Brown Subs location.
Baltimore, MD
ReBUILD Metro is partnering with Parks & People Foundation to revitalize Bond Street Park, a city-owned open space in East Baltimore’s Gay Street community. Together, these groups will convert this deteriorating and predominantly hardscaped space into a more visible, active, and sustainable greenspace that benefits the community and the local environment.
Passadumkeag, ME
The goal of this project is to create a thriving food forest within the 85 acres of reclaimed Ancestral lands which serves as Nibezun’s headquarters. Specific goals of the project include planting fruit and nut trees, distributing trees to the Wabanaki community, providing educational lessons and activities for local youth, and ensuring long-term health of the trees.
Hackensack, NJ
The Hackensack Shade Tree Committee's plan will increase environmental equity by creating an inclusive outdoor classroom on Jackson Avenue Elementary School grounds and an accessible green space spanning school grounds and a neighboring park. The project will also include the distributing small trees to students and their families, building an outdoor classroom, improving access to green space in a disadvantaged tree-baren community, and increasing the local tree canopy.
Brooklyn, NY
The Fort Greene Park Conservancy and its partners—NYC Parks, Friends of Commodore Barry Park, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation—will create a Green Infrastructure Team, a diverse cohort of young people ages 13-19, the majority of whom live in public housing adjacent to the park. This cohort will learn about the environmental harms and public health risks in Fort Greene through hands-on education and training, youth-led research, intergenerational collaboration, and mentorship, culminating in a project to design and implement green infrastructure solutions.
Bronx, NY
As part of The Bronx is Blooming’s stewardship program, GREEN (Grow, Revitalize, Educate, Engage, Nurture), they will launch GREEN Saturdays on the Sound, a weekly hands-on education and engagement event held throughout the 2022 planting season at Soundview Park. Community members will participate in environmental service projects, including invasive species removal, native species planting, and tree stewardship. This program will build on the success of previous work in Soundview Park, providing consistent focus on an area with substantial need and unique opportunity for revitalization.
Philadelphia, PA
John Bartram Association’s project will leverage new tree outreach in Southwest Philadelphia, including a new paid Tree Crew internship at Bartram’s Garden for local high school students, to restore tree canopy and address deferred green space maintenance at two under resourced local park sites within walking distance to Bartram’s Garden.
Philadelphia, PA
Hunting Park is a low-income neighborhood in North Philadelphia; in addition to being one of the most vulnerable communities in the city, it is also one of the hottest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Esperanza, Inc. has developed this project to continue work educating residents about extreme heat, while using planters and shade structures alongside tree planting to cool the community.
Providence, RI
Garden Time will collaborate with the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) to develop a multi-year tree planting and maintenance plan that will strengthen ties to the community, build environmental justice awareness, improve the tree canopy in the Silver Lake neighborhood, and create training and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated Rhode Islanders. During an 8-week Green Reentry Job Training program, ten trainees will learn technical skills related to tree care and other green industries, and will then become part of a tree care crew for the neighborhood.
Canada
Edmonton, Alberta
Root for Trees is Edmonton’s volunteer tree planting program. This project aims to plant over 800 native trees and shrubs in a naturalized area within Sifton Ravine. An increase in canopy will improve the connectivity of the wildlife corridor and increase biodiversity in the ravine.
Vancouver, British Columbia
The Stanley Park Ecology Society plans to engage community volunteers and equity-seeking groups to improve degraded forested areas of Vancouver’s 1,001-acre Stanley Park. It Is estimated that nearly 30% of Stanley park is overrun with invasive plants. By removing these species and re-establishing native plant ecosystems, community volunteers will restore the Park’s compromised habitat.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Main & Henry Community Corner will be a new, safe, and vibrant public space located in Winnipeg's north downtown neighborhood. This public space will enhance function, safety, accessibility, and facilitate physical distancing for the community. Main & Henry Community Corner will celebrate Indigenous culture, provide equitable public space in the downtown, and revitalize this section of Main Street. Downtown Winnepeg BIZ is working to formalize a safe and active space in the downtown core to create a greater sense of community.
Petty Harbour Maddox Cove, Newfoundland & Labrador
The town of Petty Harbour Maddox Cove is redeveloping Cribbies Park into a multipurpose greenspace. Reforesting the park will educate residents about the role of trees in a healthy ecosystem, especially combating the impacts of climate change.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Common Roots Urban Farm in northwest Halifax is a community farm in a dense urban setting, serving a wide variety of citizens. This fruit tree planting pilot will allow the farm to both increase food production at the site and increase educational opportunities. This project will include a workshop teaching the permaculture method of planting a fruit tree in a ‘guild’, in combination with other plants to grow as a mini ecosystem around the tree. This work will increase food literacy and food access for underserved communities within Halifax.
Peterborough, Ontario
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Community Health Survey found that Peterborough’s rate of household food insecurity was higher than the provincial average. It is suspected that food security has worsened locally since the start of the pandemic. Together, GreenUP and Nourish will build upon a virtual neighborhood fruit group, formed during the pandemic, to grow edible infrastructure in five neighborhoods that are low-income and/or vulnerable to impacts of climate change.
Milton, Ontario
The Halton Region Conservation Foundation will enhance the newly established Medicine Garden at Crawford Lake Conservation Area (CLCA) and establish an adjacent Edible Forest Garden that makes traditional medicines and Indigenous forest foods more abundant and available to Indigenous communities in Milton and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This garden has quickly become a popular space for community gathering and learning, and has become an important source for Indigenous residents to find plants for healing and cermony.
Vaughan, Ontario
The Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP) created by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is a collaborative, neighborhood-based approach for advancing urban renewal and climate change action in older urban areas. The project will include the design and construction of a bioretention facility to treat surface runoff from an adjacent impervious area. The City of Vaughan will also plant native tree species to increase biodiversity and support York Region’s canopy cover targets.
Lachine, Quebec
GRAME is undertaking this project as part of its participation in the Sous les pavés! from the Montreal Urban Ecology Center (CEUM). Primary objectives of this work include reducing impermeable surfaces and raising awareness among citizens and decision makers, integrated into the City of Montreal’s 2020-2030 Climate Plan to fight against climate change.
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