Urban Forestry is the root of our impact across North Texas
Since 1982, most of Texas Trees Foundation's efforts have been focused in Dallas. By 2025 and 2026, we plan to grow TTF’s urban forestry activities across mid-sized cities in Texas, outside major metropolitan areas.
Trees play a vital role in our communities. The sum of all the individual trees and associated vegetation comprise our urban forest. Urban forestry is the management of trees and urban forests in our communities to increase the many environmental, physical, mental, social, and economic benefits that trees provide for a better way of life.
Our Urban Forestry and Cool Schools teams act in collaboration to bring funders, partners, local leaders, and volunteers together to increase urban forestry education, awareness, and sustainability for a greener, cleaner, cooler, and healthier Texas.
Benefits of trees
Research has consistently shown that trees and green space provide a host of benefits to the environment and economy, including mitigating the effects of extreme heat, reducing crime, boosting real estate values and sales, and improving public health. Thriving urban forests bolster human health by encouraging physical activity, providing respite from stress and mental fatigue, and reducing respiratory illnesses and premature death stemming from air pollution. Urban trees filter the air by removing pollution which improves a city’s overall air quality. Trees also reduce runoff of sediment, pollutants, and organic matter into streams, improving water quality.
Services offered
More than just tree plantings, our Urban Forestry department offers a host of tree-related, community development services. If you have a project in mind for your neighborhood or city, don't hesitate to reach out! Below are just a few of our services provided by our team of Certified Arborists.
- educational trainings
- consulting
- media outreach
- reports and studies
- research opportunities
- tree plantings
- urban forestry master plans
- volunteer
Impact of 1.5 million trees planted
Since Texas Trees Foundation began in 1982, the organization has planted an estimated 1.5 million trees. The overall ecological and economic impact of these 1.5 million trees is estimated, over the course of a 50-year time period, below:
- 3,240,904,000 pounds of carbon dioxide sequestered. This saves $145,840,680.
- 3,084,543,915 gallons of rainfall intercepted, at a savings of $524,372,465 relieving burden on the city’s storm water systems.
- Remove 13,580,682 pounds of air pollution, improving the air quality leading to healthier air. This provides a savings of $55,273,379.
- Create an estimated 2,250,000,000 square feet of additional tree canopy (1,500 square feet per tree).