Over the years, Los Angeles has undertaken significant efforts to expand its tree canopy.

In 2019, the city launched a plan to plant over 90,000 by 2021, due to delays from the pandemic, 65,000 trees were planted by 2022.

Today, those efforts continue alongside organizations like Northeast Trees.

We've planted over 100,000 trees, and so if we count the regeneration that comes out of the trees that we plant, it could be in the millions.

Part of our ambition is to restore the natural ecosystems in Los Angeles.

It includes the improvement of our soils, of our air, waterways, even wildlife and animal habitat.

Trees are just the ultimate example of a long term multi benefit investment.

So before this tree was planted here, this area probably didn't have much going on.

It might have been bare dirt, it might have been turf grass that wasn't providing a lot of services to anyone.

It's just a little tree right now.

But you can really imagine that in just a few years, this tree is going to grow.

Its canopy is going to expand, and it's going to start to provide a lot of shade and cooling for the people who live in this area We were invited to plant trees here at Pueblo del Rio in South Central L.A..

I hired young people from Pueblo and trained them how to plant trees in their own community.

We planted those trees very intentionally to grow big enough to actually visually give them a little bit of screening from the trains, to capture as much air pollution as possible, and to just beautify, to give the people who live in this community some joy and beauty in their lives through, you know, nature.

The key, especially in an area like this, is that you need funding not just to plant the tree, but you need to make sure that you have funding to water the tree until it's fully established.