All of Us Are The Future of Tree Care

Community and Urban Forestry Alliance and Youth Arboriculture Career Expo/Experience aims to educate, expose, and empower underserved youth unaware of the benefits of learning to lead tree care activities and help in native tree protection, recovery, and rediscovery. 

CUFA-YACE is not your average advocacy group or service provider. Our missions are much broader and bolder than that. First, we understand the impact of environmental factors, community engagement, ecosystem protection, and the importance of increasing ecological literacy. With a declining tree canopy, we must increase the survival rates of mature and transplanted trees. Thousands of city trees die annually and ten times that are engulfed or under stress by invasive species, so the time to act is now. We cannot replace the broad benefits of a thirty-inch black walnut tree with a three-inch diameter replacement. Second, a tree is more meaningful than canopy coverage, stormwater management, or erosion control. Trees also have the remarkable ability to produce food and medicinal properties for humans adding in reducing or preventing some of the most common diseases. All communities should have colorful and healthy trees on their streets and that starts with the basic knowledge of the trees currently there, their age, species, needs, tolerances, benefits, potential pests, and value. In all, this greatly improves a community's viability. 

To accomplish this task CUFA-YACE has chosen to educate and empower youth to become the next generation of arborists, ecologists, entomologists, environmental engineers, foresters, scientists, plant pathologists, and policymakers. For many of us, the protection, recovery, and re-discovery of native plants are about survival, not just for the trees but for generations to come. For centuries native plants have played a key role in the health and wealth of communities across the country and could once again provide those benefits that could only come from nature. With the effects of the pandemic still lingering around, many teens and trees are in clear and present danger, so now is an opportune time for communities to learn more about the place and powers of native plants and why we must plant, protect, and place a ring of safety around our teens and trees. 

So, whether you know a teen or tree in need of support or another chance at life, want to increase your tree native knowledge, use your yard to help reduce air pollution, fight cancer and heart disease, or reduce teen crime, drop-outs, pregnancy, and violence, don't hesitate to contact us. CUFA would appreciate the opportunity to connect our intern arborist to your yard. CUFA believes through genuine care, concern, compassion, and exposure to environmental education, we can improve the welfare across many different landscapes, foster hope, expand community relations, increase volunteerism, and lay the foundation for more positive and progressive community images. Will you join us in co-creating community solutions that address teens and native trees shared struggles? We hope so because the end goal is to create environments that spawn perpetual cycles of productive, professional, and proficient teens caring for native trees and each other.