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Openlands TreePlanters Grants provide young trees to communities throughout the Chicago region.
Plant Trees in Your Neighborhood with Your Community
TreePlanters Grants are awarded to people, groups, organizations, or local municipalities that can bring together and coordinate their neighbors to plant 10-40 trees in predetermined locations in their neighborhood. While TreePlanters grantees provide the people and places to plant trees, Openlands provides the education, organization, supplies, expertise, and quality control on the planting day, working with the grantee to host an educational and engaging tree planting event. After the planting day, community members who received trees agree to take care of these trees for several years while they get established. Openlands Community Arborist and forestry staff are available to provide support and educational resources, and answer any questions throughout the process.
Where do we plant trees?
Guided by new grant funding, large areas in our region have been identified where working with the community to plant new trees will have a high impact. These areas were identified based on economic social, and environmental criteria. Priority will be given to TreePlanters Grant applications from these areas in order to grow the canopy and support our region’s trees and the communities who benefit from them.
Use one of the following search methods to find out if your project location falls within the priority areas:
- Click the search box and type in the desired planting address or choose Use current location
- Click on your desired planting location within the map
Why plant trees with your community?
People are essential to the health of the urban forest. Research shows that newly planted trees that are properly cared for in the first three years have a significantly higher rate of survival than those that are not, especially in places like Chicago. And trees give back to us, too. Trees are central to our long-term health and well-being by cleaning air, reducing our stress levels, providing shade that cools our communities, and so much more.
But not every community has equal access to tree-lined streets. Historic and ongoing environmental policies have caused increased pollution and lower-than-average tree canopy in some neighborhoods in our region. Guided by new grant funding, large areas in our region have been identified where engaging the community and planting new trees will have a high impact based on economic, social, and environmental criteria. TreePlanters Grant applications from these areas will be given priority to grow the canopy and support our region’s trees and the communities that benefit from them.
