TreePeople

Last updated

TreePeople
NicknameTP
Founded1973
FounderAndy Lipkis
FocusConservation service, environmental education
Location
Area served
Los Angeles
Website www.treepeople.org

TreePeople is an educational and training environmental advocacy organization based in Los Angeles, California. [1] The TreePeople organization advocates and works to support sustainable urban ecosystems in the Greater Los Angeles area through education, volunteer community-based action, and advocacy. [2]

Contents

Organization history

Andy Lipkis - Founder/President of TreePeople since 1973 Andywikipedia2.jpg
Andy Lipkis – Founder/President of TreePeople since 1973

TreePeople was founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by an 18-year-old activist Andy Lipkis. [2] Lipkis and a group of other teenagers began planting trees three years prior at summer camp in the San Bernardino Mountains. [2] Lipkis heard that smog from Los Angeles was drifting up to the mountains and killing the forest. He rallied his fellow campers, tore up a parking lot, and planted smog-tolerant trees. [2]

Lipkis served as president of TreePeople for many years and still serves as a Board Member. [2] Cindy Montañez became the Chief Executive Officer in 2016. The organization works with thousands of members and volunteers and more than 50 staff members, operating out of the Center for Community Forestry located with-in 45-acre Coldwater Canyon Park. [3]

The TreePeople organization focuses on increasing Greater Los Angeles' urban forest by supporting people in planting and caring for trees at homes, on school yards, and in neighborhoods. It also supports volunteers in restoring damaged local forest ecosystems in the Santa Monica Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains and San Bernardino Mountains. [4]

Beyond planting and caring for trees, TreePeople works to promote urban watershed management, using green infrastructure to address critical urban water issues.[ citation needed ] It educates and advocates for water conservation and stormwater capture in the urban landscape for Los Angeles' long-term sustainability.[ citation needed ]

Since its founding, the TreePeople staff have gone on to plant more than two million trees in the Los Angeles area and have developed one of the nation's largest environmental education programs. [ citation needed ] A recent program is T.R.E.E.S. – Transagency Resources for Environmental and Economic Sustainability – demonstrating the feasibility and facilitates the implementation of integrated urban ecosystem management to increase the health and sustainability of our cities.[ citation needed ]

Accomplishments[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. CORWIN, MILES (December 25, 1991). "TreePeople--an Idea That Keeps on Growing". Los Angeles Times.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Williams, Lena (March 16, 1995). "In Los Angeles, A Time for Planting". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  3. KOENENN, CONNIE (July 20, 1999). "The Green Team". Los Angeles Times.
  4. MOFFET, PENELOPE (December 17, 1988). "The Green Keepers : In Their 'Magic Forest,' a Group of Idealists Nurture and Teach". Los Angeles Times.