Los Angeles Takes Steps to Grow Out Its Urban Forest

Extending the urban forest is one element of L.A.'s Green New Deal, which calls for 90,000 new trees by 2021. A new inventory of street trees "will allow Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Services to collect better data and identify trends while determining the best practices for tree planting," Katie Pyzyk writes. 

The inventory follows the debut of Cool Streets LA, "a program designed to reduce temperatures within communities and to diminish a metro area's urban heat island effect. Planting more trees is one of the main cooling measures, along with installing cool pavements and adding more cool roofs."

Like other aspects of L.A.'s Green New Deal, the planting effort prioritizes low-income neighborhoods like South L.A., which tend to have fewer trees and green spaces as well as more polluting facilities. 

L.A.'s Green New Deal accelerates municipal climate targets, including "converting the city's vehicle fleet to zero emissions by 2028, ensuring all new buildings are emissions-free by 2030 and ensuring 57% of new housing units are built within 1,500 feet of transit by 2025."