The Arbor Day Foundation and the Chicago Region Trees Initiative are each hosting an environmental justice webinar next week.

On Tuesday, July 18, from 11 a.m. – noon, the Arbor Day Foundation is presenting Environmental Justice in Tree Cities: Where to Begin? A conversation with Dr. Christine Carmichael of Fair Forests Consulting for the Tree City USA network. In this webinar, attendees will learn the defining characteristics of environmental justice, evidence of environmental injustices in urban and community forestry, and strategies to integrate environmental justice principles into their Tree City USA programs.

If you, your organization, your city or town are new to environmental justice concepts and practices, this webinar will equip you with tangible next steps to advance your efforts, including ways to measure your success and adapt as needed along the way. 

Register here. The webinar is free, and International Society of Arboriculture CEU’s are available for live attendees.

Also next week, Identifying Barriers to Equitable Tree Planting and Quantifying Potential Benefits to Overcoming Them, will take place on Thursday, July 20 from 1-3 p.m. This seminar will offer strategies to work with diverse audiences to increase tree equity in the Chicago region. It will present the results from two recent surveys: the first was answered by 1,200 residents and captured their perceptions about trees and barriers that they’ve experienced in planting them, and the second went to regional greening organizations and municipal foresters and identified strategies that the groups are using to successfully work with residents. Attendees will learn more about the motivations that residents have to plant or not plant trees, and about how collaboration across organizations may better serve residents of the Chicago region.

Register here. The webinar is free. This research was made possible by a grant through the TREE Fund.