Planting Trees

A low-cost, results-driven model for neighborhood reforestation.

The hard part of reforesting neighborhoods isn’t planting trees. It’s caring for them afterward. We reach communities through students and schools, so families plant their own trees and steward them for years.

Young children toss and hold up fallen autumn leaves outside a school building, with an adult standing behind them.
Fruit trees ready for families
Systems challenge

Street-tree projects tend to have low survival rates in neighborhoods where residents trust public institutions less, often the same places with the most pollution and the greatest need for shade.

Our approach

Our trees programs offer families a free tree to plant together. They choose the kind of tree they want and pick it up at school to plant and care for in their own yards. We turn tree planting into a lesson for students and a long-term stewardship role for families.

By the numbers

1,000+ households have planted trees at their own homes.since 2019

280 fruit trees were planted at students’ homes.2025

150 trees were planted on school campuses.2025

Having the opportunity to have a fruit tree at home, and taking care of it as we do at school, is really good.Amadeo Cumba Gonzalez, classroom teacher, Washington Elementary (WCCUSD) · 2026 stakeholder survey
From the field
Volunteers smile beside potted tree saplings and trays of plant starts in front of a large painted butterfly mural.
Volunteers and new plantings, Markham
Young people and adults dig with shovels along a grassy slope beside farm rows under white row covers.
Planting day
An adult in a red jacket crouches to plant a potted grass while a child in gloves and a mask watches.
Planting demo
Where the trees are

Every tree we’ve planted, 2022–2025

Our school families live across Oakland and West Contra Costa, in the neighborhoods with the least shade and the most need. Every tree is planted as part of a long-term school lesson and comes with multilingual care support, so it lasts.

We’ve planted 1,129 trees since 2022. 829 of them are mapped here.

Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors

Each dot is a tree planted with a family

Bring this to your school.

Principals, PTAs, teachers, district staff: tell us about your campus and we'll talk through what's possible, from a first consultation to a full program.

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Fund this program.

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Our programs reinforce each other. Keep reading.Next: Movement Building →