The Plans to Plant 4.6 Million New Trees in Houston by 2030

August 24, 2021
Both the Resilient Houston Plan and the City's Climate Action Plan include planting many new trees as a key strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change and address carbon emissions. Trees provide many environmental and ecosystem benefits. They reduce air pollution and stormwater runoff, improve water quality, help lower temperatures, and create habitats for birds, insects and plants. A diverse tree canopy is essential for maintaining biodiversity in urban environments. Trees also increase property values and quality of life, and help make commercial areas more attractive and people friendly.
 
With the rise of temperatures expected with climate change, trees will be an essential element for addressing extreme heat and urban heat islands, particularly those in proximity to concentrations of roadways and parking lots. An increase in extreme heat events will pose many serious public health risks.
 
“Trees improve our ability to combat many of the health, equity, climate, and built environment challenges that we face,” said Marissa Aho, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Houston. “These include helping to cool and shade in the face of urban and extreme heat, improving air quality and capturing carbon, supporting rich biodiversity, improving health and wellbeing, and enhancing the built environment.”
 
Houston’s Climate Action Plan focused on how the City’s tree planting goal will help restore, protect and enhance our natural ability to capture and store carbon to help mitigate climate change. Planting 4.6 million new native trees in 10 years will allow every Houstonian to play a role.
 
Here is the press release from the launch of the City's tree planting effort: Press Releases (houstontx.gov)
 
Many components of this tree planting effort will be coordinated and conducted by the City of Houston on City owned lands.
Plans to expand the tree canopy include restoring municipal nature preserves, riparian buffers and linear forests on street medians. Below are listed the major City programs:
 
Riparian Restoration Initiative:
The Parks Department’s Riparian Restoration Initiative has a goal of restoring more than 1,000 acres of riparian buffers degraded by development and stream channelization in 70 parks located along bayous and streams. That restoration effort includes planting over 200,000 native trees in Houston parks and greenspaces.
 
RE-Plant Houston: 
The RE-Plant Houston campaign is an effort to grow the city’s urban forest by adding trees to city parks and green spaces managed by the Parks Department. The work is being done in collaboration with Trees for Houston, the Hermann Park and Memorial Park conservancies and the Houston Parks Board. Additionally a Community ReLeaf master plan is a $2 million project that will guide the eventual planting of 20,000 trees.
 
City of Houston Urban Forestry, Street Trees: 
The Parks Department’s NeighborWoods Program provides volunteers with free trees to plant on city rights of way. And the city offers resources and tips on best practices when planting trees. The Houston Area Urban Forestry Council has recommendations for which species of small, medium and large trees to plant in the Houston-area urban forest, as well as species to avoid, which include those that are invasive and susceptible to disease, insects and brittle wood. The city has also committed to making it easier to plant trees along streets in the right of way green space between streets and sidewalks.
 
In addition to the efforts of the City of Houston, a Tree Strategy Implementation Group has been formed, comprised of a coalition of various public and private partners. 
 
The Tree Strategy Implementation Group (TSIG):
“The Tree Strategy Implementation Group (TSIG), comprised of all the major large-scale native tree planters in the region, came together in early 2020 to create a strategy to accomplish the planting of 4.6 million native trees by 2030,” said Deborah January-Bevers, President of Houston Wilderness. "Based on data analyzed by TSIG members to be most beneficial to the region, 40% of the native 4.6 million trees are targeted for Urban Heat Island areas with tree species with large leaf canopies, and 60% of the native trees are targeted for native ‘Super Trees’ species, such as the Live Oak, American Elm and Sycamore, Tuliptree, Maple and Ash trees and Loblolly Pine, that provide high levels of air pollution reduction, water absorption, erosion control and carbon sequestration."
 
More on the TSIG, including resources and archived videos:
 
Port of Houston TREES Program:
The Port of Houston Trees & Riparian Enhancement of Ecosystem Services (PoH TREES) Program is a multi-year collaborative project facilitated by Houston Wilderness and focused on targeted large-scale tree planting through a comprehensive tree inventory and installation of 1 million native trees along Lower Buffalo Bayou, Lower Brays Bayou and 25 miles of the Houston Ship Channel, using native tree species research, GIS-based data collection and on-site inspections and tree plantings on properties along the ship channel. Native tree species were identified that had the highest combination of absorption of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants (greenhouse gases), and flood mitigation through rainfall interception/avoided runoff (now called the "14 Super Trees").