Since 2018, The Park People has refined our approach to community greening. The Park People is partnering with community leaders, offering technical expertise and project facilitation for residents that want to engage in continued, sustained greening at the neighborhood scale. This approach begins by hirimg local contractors to build up neighborhood capacity to lead community greening projects. In this way, we connect local neighborhood organizations to resources, and provide the framework for continued, sustained greening projects. Although planting trees is by itself beneficial, the full potential of environmental, public health, and economic benefits of tree planting can be maximized by communities if they are leading the greening efforts. At the same time, because the great bulk of Denver’s potential locations for new trees are on private property, Denver cannot grow the urban forest it needs unless communities buy into the effort. In short, communities need trees, but trees need communities.
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