One Tree Planted Urban Forestry Action Fund

Wyld is proud to support One Tree Planted’s Urban Forestry Action Fund. This fund works to ensure environmental justice by providing funding to a diverse mix of city-centered projects for communities in need. Urban forestry is simply forestry in an urban setting like a city. Planting trees for Urban Forestry will contribute to:  

• Reducing the effect of dangerous urban heat islands  

• Providing green spaces for communities most in need  

• Enhancing air quality to improve the health of people and animals 

We are supporting 6 different urban forestry plantings across the country in communities where Wyld is. Each has specific goals and impacts for the community – from improving air quality to growing fruits and nuts. You can read about each community’s planting, goal, and impacts below that Wyld is supporting. 

• Oklahoma City, OK – Downtown & Midtown 

• Goal: One Tree Planted will help improve air quality and increase the urban tree canopy in Oklahoma City by adding trees to Downtown and Midtown. 

• Impacts: Many impervious surfaces, like concrete, contribute to an intensified urban heat island effect and water quality issues. Adding more trees to these areas will contribute to a more equitable tree canopy and provide shade and comfort for people walking and biking. 

• Detroit, MI – Littlefield Community 

• Goal: Together with local partners, One Tree Planted will be planting trees in and around Littlefield Playfield. The neighborhoods surrounding Littlefield Playfield are some of the most susceptible to adverse impacts of natural hazards in the City of Detroit. 

• Impacts: Residents who live in this neighborhood face high rates of unemployment and poverty and don’t have the resources to plant trees in their community. Trees planted as part of this project will help remove improve air quality, intercept stormwater, and provide shade for cooling. 

• Chicago, IL – O’Hare Communities 

• Goal: One Tree Planted will plant trees in Chicago in communities surrounding O'Hare International Airport. 

• Impacts: Land use in this area correlates to higher proportions of paved areas, resulting in high surface temperatures. Residents of the surrounding communities are generally working- to middle-class families, many of them belonging to BIPOC populations. Planting trees will support these under resourced communities by creating quality green spaces that provide cooling shade, filter stormwater, and reduce air and noise pollution.  

• Las Cruces, NM – Las Cruces Street Trees 

• Goal: One Tree Planted will be collaborating with Tree New Mexico and local volunteers to plant trees in a community in Las Cruces. According to American Forest’s Tree Equity Score, the current canopy cover is only 4%. 

• Impacts: This project will build volunteer capacity and knowledge to plant thousands more trees in the future. In the long term, these efforts will reduce the heat index, improve the air quality, and improve home values in the neighborhoods at a faster pace than is possible through public funding for city-planted street trees. 

• New York City, NY – Kissena Park 

• Goal: Many NYC residents only experience nature in city parks. This project will restore a forested natural area in a heavily utilized park, advancing tree equity, and ensuring residents have access to healthy, nearby nature. 

• Impacts: Natural areas store carbon, capture stormwater, moderate extreme heat, and provide habitat for plants and animals. This project will restore degraded areas with native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species to protect existing areas against future expansion of invasive species. Healthy forests protect biodiversity, creating habitat for migrating birds and pollinators. 

• St. Louis, MO – Community Orchards 

• Goal: One Tree Planted is working in collaboration with The Giving Grove and Seed St. Louis to provide fruit and nut trees across 20 community orchards sites in and around St. Louis. 

• Impacts: Urban areas in St. Louis face growing challenges related to air quality, soil health, lack of greenspace for native plants, food security, and access to healthy nutrition. The trees planted in this project will produce an estimated 2.6 million servings of food over their lifetime. By increasing urban tree canopy and lowering air temperatures, the orchards also can reduce risks of heat-related illnesses and respiratory illnesses. 

Interested in supporting Urban Forestry projects? Learn more at: https://onetreeplanted.org/collections/united-states/products/urban-forestry