Emerald Necklace Volunteer Stewardship Program Support

Green Space, Park Access, and Trees

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Los Angeles County is one of the nation's least green urban areas, with eastern L.A. County's low-income communities of color most impacted by disparity due to historic disinvestment in parks and green spaces. The need for expanded urban forestry, school greening, and access to rivers and parks is evident and has wide-reaching impacts on public and environmental health. A recent CalEPA study found eastern L.A. County has the state's worst urban heat island, raising temperatures as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit and exacerbating extreme heat days. The American Lung Association's annual State of the Air ranks L.A.'s air among the nation's unhealthiest, causing long-term cardiovascular disease. L.A. County Public Health tracks Latino obesity rates as the County's highest, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifying lack of open space access and poor air quality as key indicators. Expanding parks, green schools and forestry throughout this region will address these issues.

The Emerald Necklace Greenway and Green School Network is our legacy focus. We will host 50 Stewardship Program events for over 2,000 community participants to implement new river greenway segments and green school projects to restore equitable nature access in eastern Los Angeles County. Our volunteer database is over 6,000 members strong, with most participants being students from over 180 schools in our metro area, as well as families, businesses, and service groups. At events we host community volunteers to realize our Emerald Necklace vision for a greener, healthier L.A. County, and provide participants with hands-on training in urban forestry, natural infrastructure, and sustainable urban development. Volunteer activities include: site prep to protect ecological integrity; urban forestry to plant native habitat trees and shrubs; and post-planting establishment care and community science opportunities to index the urban forest and track benefits of greening. Further, we design and install nature-based recreational and interpretive amenities like universally accessible play elements to promote healthy play and recreation, as well as interpretive elements like project signage that highlights L.A.'s natural and cultural history, promoting environmental literacy and understanding of L.A.'s multicultural context. Volunteer Stewards assist throughout this process, from feedback throughout the community-based design process to assistance with installing these elements.

Our key environmental justice and proactive climate response focus for the past 20 years has been to proactively create "Landscape-Scale Conservation" connecting a Los Angeles Basin-wide natural infrastructure network of river greenways, nature-based green schools, parks, and trails known as Emerald Necklace "Mountains to Sea" network. This collaborative and unifying vision is inspired by the 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region, which called for protection of upper watersheds, creation of a robust urban river greenway network, and for all public schools to serve as parks to protect public health and balance the built urban environment with nature. If we can successfully implement this vision today, we can help protect the natural resources (air, water, and biodiversity) we depend on, reduce heat island impact to most vulnerable populations, provide equitable access to nature, promote active transit, and celebrate our shared natural history and cultural heritage.

Over the past 2 decades, we have developed comprehensive metrics to evaluate success of the Emerald Necklace network. We track the number of Emerald Necklace volunteer events held and types of events including Urban Greening, Forest Care, or Community Science. We track the total number of participants and volunteer hours served, number of sites impacted, and number of trees and shrubs planted, measured, and indexed. We measure net increase in tree canopy per site and quantify air quality, carbon sequestration, and stormwater capture benefits of trees planted. We measure surface temperatures before and after planting to capture urban heat island benefits and we quantity stormwater capture. We track many types of project amenities created, enhanced, or maintained including multi-use trails, natural infrastructure water capture elements created, multicultural interpretive and recreational amenities, and COVID-safe outdoor classrooms and nature-based play areas created.