CANOPY BLOG

The power of working together in 2017

By Canopy Team on December 18, 2017

Healthy Trees, Healthy Communities

This year, we again experienced the power of working together toward a common vision. Thanks to your support, we expanded tree planting and nature education to new schools and neighborhoods, engaged more youth as Teen Urban Foresters, and worked to remedy local inequities in tree canopy cover and access to urban nature.

With your help, we’ll continue planting trees, advocating for nature-filled neighborhoods, and investing in a greener future.

Here are a few things we accomplished together in 2017:

This fall, we kicked off a pilot partnership with Oxford Day Academy (ODA), a new charter high school in East Palo Alto. As part of their model of community-based learning, ODA asked Canopy to engage a small group of students in ongoing environmental fieldwork. Since September, eight ODA freshmen have joined Canopy two afternoons per week to green their community and design their own projects based on Canopy’s mission and goals. The partnership builds on our ongoing Teen Urban Forester program, which provides paid internships for high school students from other East Palo Alto schools.
Education Manager Natalie Brubaker has been busy delivering hands-on lessons for East Palo Alto elementary school students, as well as “Wellness Tree Walks” for high school students in Palo Alto and Mountain View. One of our favorite lessons is called “Planting Trees is Fun.” In this lesson, 5th-grade students explore tree parts and functions inside the classroom, then head outside to plant their own tree. In October, this group from Brentwood Elementary School planted a Southern Live Oak and named it “Oak-y-Doke.” The kids were absolutely glowing with pride! On the way back to the classroom, one boy asked Canopy staff, “Can I come work for Canopy, too?”
As part of our 2017 Planting Leader Training, our hard-working team of new and returning planting leaders learned the ins-and-outs of tree planting and put their new skills to work planting trees at Terman Park in Palo Alto. Now, they’re ready to lead other volunteers during community tree planting events throughout the year. And we’ll certainly need their help—our goal this planting season is more than 400 new trees!