Urban Forest Equity

The distribution of urban forests in California reveals that under-resourced cities and neighborhoods tend to have fewer trees due to discriminatory urban planning and investment decisions. Planting trees provides many human health and environmental benefits, including protection from extreme heat – one of the deadliest impacts of climate change. However, increasing the tree canopy in Los Angeles is challenging because of its extensive roadways, semi-arid climate, and diversity in income.

We provide specific, practical solutions to improve health outcomes for community members, local groups, and municipal leaders.

Credit: North East Trees

Current Projects

Co-lead the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective

Researchers: Edith de Guzman, LCI; Rachel O’Leary, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; Rachel Malarich, City of L.A.; Marianna Babboni, USC Public Exchange; Monica Dean, USC Public Exchange

The Urban Forest Equity Collective (UFEC) is a consortium of forestry experts, L.A. city staff, community-based organizations, researchers, and consultants aiming to create holistic strategies to advance urban forest equity in the lowest-canopied neighborhoods. By conducting a comprehensive analysis and creating strategies to advance urban forest equity in L.A., UFEC presents methods to address decades of systemic disinvestment and planning decisions that have resulted in poor public health outcomes, limited access to green spaces, and a host of related consequences ranging from heat exposure and poor air quality to food insecurity and reduced ecosystem services.

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Partnership with City of Los Angeles Office of Forest Management

Researchers: Edith de Guzman, LCI; Rachel Malarich, City of Los Angeles; Clarissa Boyajian, City of Los Angeles

LCI partners with the City of Los Angeles Office of Forest Management, which regularly seeks our advice on best practices for urban forest equity planning. The decision-making framework we pioneered with the LA Urban Forest Equity Collective has been adopted by the city in its urban forest management planning process.

Informing Heat and Urban Forest Science Curriculum

Collaborators: Edith de Guzman (LCI); Travis Longcore, UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability; Mas Dojiri, LA Sanitation & Environment; Jill Grace, WestEd.

Funder: National Science Foundation (NSF)

LCI staff is advising on the NSF-funded heat and urban forest science Empowering Changemakers: Urban-Biodiversity Initiative for Teachers and Youth (ECUITY). It is developing an environmental justice and biodiversity curriculum for middle schools in Los Angeles, supporting the City of Los Angeles’s goal of zero net biodiversity loss.

Water Governance Atlas Update

LCI Researchers: Edith de Guzman, Gregory Pierce, Itzel Vasquez-Rodriguez, and Vivian Cruz

Collaborator and Funder: UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources

In 2025, LCI will be releasing the third 5-year update of the Los Angeles County Water Systems Governance Map. It will not only present updated data on LA County’s 200 water systems, but also expand the tool to cover additional Southern California counties, including Orange, Ventura, Kern, and Riverside.

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Published Research

Addressing Historic Underivestment in Heat-Vulnerable Communities (2024 report, guidebook, and toolkit)

Authors: Edith de Guzman, UCLA LCI; Members of the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective; Krystle Yu, UCLA master of urban and regional planning student

Funders: Accelerate Resilience L.A. (a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) and the U.S. Forest Service, via the L.A. Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability

LCI and the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective provide a step-by-step, decision-making framework that centers equity in tree planting and presents public engagement strategies developed in partnership with community-based organizations, designed to give a voice to residents.

A socio-ecological approach to align tree stewardship programs with public health benefits in marginalized neighborhoods in Los Angeles, USA (2024 article in Frontiers)

Researchers: Edith de Guzman, LCI; Francisco J. Escobedo, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service; Rachel O’Leary, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

By adapting a framework regularly used in the public health field to evaluate urban forest equity and well-being, the researchers developed a model of community-based tree stewardship to reveal how interacting dimensions — from individual to society level — drive urban forest equity and related public health outcomes. The research can inform urban forestry policy, planning, and management actions to support increasing tree cover and reducing heat exposure in marginalized communities.

The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
Click on the linked words to hear the pronunciation for the Tongva-language words.
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