Moody Grant Recipient: TreeFolks

TreeFolks engages thousands of volunteers and community groups to plant trees in public parks, preserves, and schoolyards. TreeFolks also provides free, year-round education opportunities for all ages with an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning. What began as a simple idea has grown into a movement. Since their earliest days, TreeFolks has believed that planting and caring for trees can create real change right here at home, one neighborhood, one creekside, one schoolyard at a time. Today, that vision is visible across Central Texas. With the help of volunteers, partners, donors, and neighbors, TreeFolks has engaged thousands of people to plant more than 3 million trees since 1989. From shade on hot streets to healthier creeks and stronger habitats, each tree is a lasting sign of care for the place we share.

1. Can you share a brief history of TreeFolks and its mission?

Since being founded in 1989, TreeFolks has planted over 3 million trees, distributed almost 200,000 trees to local neighborhoods, grown 45,000 trees through the Native Tree Nursery, engaged over 52,500 volunteers, reforested 341 acres of Central Texas floodplain land following carbon credit protocols, and educated both children and adults about planting, protecting, and nurturing trees. What started as a small group of friends working together to plant trees has grown into a comprehensive regional strategy for ensuring tree canopy equity and climate resilience throughout Central Texas.

2. How does the planting and caring for trees result in stronger communities for Austin and Central Texas?

 Our planting events are celebrations of folks working alongside one another, creating an environment not only for themselves, but for the whole community. Planting and caring for trees together is a commitment to connecting with one another and helping create spaces that welcome everyone. Our comprehensive and equitable programming has a transformational impact on the health of our environment and community.  Empowering residents through hands-on experience and practical knowledge allows them to take action on their own properties, businesses, and community spaces. TreeFolks strives to build community leaders with a long-term link to their natural environment. These individuals then feel empowered to engage with TreeFolks and other organizations in decision-making to create greener, healthier neighborhoods for all.

Austin is now the 13th largest city in the United States (census.gov 2025), and we must balance this ever-increasing population growth with a heightened focus on green spaces and a healthy urban canopy. Trees sequester carbon dioxide, mitigate the urban heat island effect by reducing ambient air temperature, reduce peak energy demand and electricity bills, improve water quality in streams, encourage recreation, and can improve overall health outcomes. TreeFolks believes that all neighbors in our community deserve these benefits. We also believe that continually engaging in these neighborhoods beyond initial tree-planting, through tree care events and educational opportunities, is critical to maximizing community buy-in and ensuring tree health and survival. Our central goals of engagement and education of neighborhood residents, combined with our commitment to working in the neighborhoods for the long term, create transformational, systems-level change that fosters healthier, more disaster-resilient communities.

3. Tell us more about your work in education and teaching our youth about the

importance of nature and the ‘urban forest’?

 TreeFolks recognizes the importance of educating the future stewards of the land. Our tree planting and tree care events are designed to accommodate participants of all experience levels, including youth. At these events, young people not only learn planting and maintenance techniques but also experience firsthand the significance of community work in land stewardship, which emphasizes a deeper connection to nature.

Our work brings together participants from diverse age groups, fostering intergenerational collaboration essential to building a green workforce. By partnering with local organizations focused on youth, such as Urban Roots, Barton Springs University, Austin ISD, and others, we can further expand our efforts to educate young people about the importance of our urban forest.

Each of our Community Tree Planting events begins with a series of stretches, followed by a thorough tree planting demonstration that covers tool names and uses, how to identify a tree’s root flare, and what to do if a tree has girdling roots. This careful process ensures that volunteers feel confident planting trees successfully and that tree survival remains high. Our Ready, Set, Plant! program, which focuses on planting trees across Austin’s rivers and streams, provides volunteers with a unique experience to learn about our local watersheds and the ecological value of riparian restoration. Volunteers get to witness up-close how trees provide erosion control and water filtration along these sensitive zones, supporting an abundance of aquatic species and other native wildlife. These touchpoints are critical for cultivating a lifelong appreciation of nature in young people.

4. Looking ahead to Earth Day, what are ways for our community to get involved in making Austin (or their own community) a healthy green space?

 Earth Month marks the end of the tree-planting season in Central Texas, when TreeFolks turns our attention to tree care. Our Tree TLC events provide training in proper techniques to help trees grow and thrive. Springtime also launches a wonderful opportunity to improve Austin’s green spaces. Community members can join TreeFolks for a Tree Identification Walk to enhance their skills in identifying different species. By familiarizing ourselves with the native tree species that make up our urban forest, we can better understand how to support it.

The tree identification program is part of a partnership with Central Texas Seed Savers and is a crucial effort to educate the community on how to identify and collect seeds from native tree species. This helps restore our canopy with trees grown from hyper-local seeds, which are more resilient to our climate and more likely to thrive.

Additionally, community members can delve deeper into growing native trees from seed by spending a morning at our Seeds to Trees Native Nursery. During Nursery Workdays, volunteers gain hands-on experience with the processes involved in producing saplings from over 50 native species.

 We invite the community to learn more about how to get involved: treefolks.org/volunteer

5. Recent accomplishments you want to highlight?

 TreeFolks recently had the honor of returning to Community First! Village for the fifth year in a row. Community First!, developed by Mobile Loaves and Fishes, is a master-planned neighborhood that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women transitioning out of chronic homelessness. This year, TreeFolks staff, volunteers, and property residents worked together to plant 50 native trees. This added to the hundreds of trees TreeFolks has planted at Community First! in the past, all of which provide shade, wildlife habitat, and even food. With recent private development taking place beside the expanding Community First! Village, these trees will serve as a natural barrier against noise and provide privacy. A staff member from Community First! Village emphasized the significance of this contribution to the residents, noting that for those who have lived in unsafe conditions for years, privacy and safety are paramount.

The planting event was sponsored by corporate partners Epicor, Arm, Oracle, and longtime supporters of TreeFolks and Community First! Village, Tim and Martha O’Connell. Volunteers from all three sponsors,   participated in the planting day, alongside neighbors from CF!V. The event was a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting shared community spaces and how investing in our city’s urban forest brings us together.

TreeFolks Seeds to Trees Native Nursery – Photo Credit: Camila Restrepo

6. Upcoming events or key milestones we should mention?

We’re thrilled to announce that our award-winning NeighborWoods program, which provides free 5-gallon trees for Austinites, reached a new milestone! This season, the NeighborWoods program distributed a total of 9,264 trees, up from 7,791 the previous season. This critical effort not only ensures that Austin remains well-shaded but also helps bring the environmental benefits of trees to the neighborhoods that need them most.

The NeighborWoods Program successfully reached this milestone thanks to tremendous support from the City of Austin and Austin Energy. Our city partners have championed the program’s growth, helping us meet the higher demand for trees through our home delivery service, which provided 4,971 trees directly to people’s doorsteps at no cost. Our partners at H-E-B have also been instrumental to the program’s success, hosting a portion of our in-person tree adoption events each year and providing a trusted, accessible space to connect people with trees. Additionally, our Community Spaces Program supplied 119 trees to local groups this year, including Foundation Communities, the Islamic Center of Greater Austin, Colorado Crossings HOA, the Little Learning Grove, and St. Francis School.