In an effort to reduce the impacts of climate change and the dangers of elevated temperatures, many cities have adopted plans to increase tree canopy coverage in densely populated urban areas. In 2022, Denver Parks and Recreation set their sights on supporting a citywide urban forest. One strategy they’ve implemented is tree planting, which relies heavily on community involvement.
A small but mighty group gathered on a snowy Saturday morning in Globeville, ready to get their hands dirty. They’ve come together for a community tree planting event, organized by Bird Seed Collective, the Park People, the Nature Conservancy, and Denver Parks and Rec.
Everyone’s eager to get planting. It’s an exciting day for Globeville residents. The whole community has been in the loop for a month or so. Dawn Diaz and others with Bird Seed Collective made sure to spread the word.
"So, we went door to door and asked neighbors if they wanted a tree, if they were interested in a tree," said Diaz.
"Bird Seed paid for the trees that they got, we got from Park People. Then after that, we put them on a list later on when about a week ago. We started to call everybody and let them know 'hey your trees are here if you’re gonna come pick them up or are we taking them to you and planting them, and I already went and marked the spots where we’re gonna plant them got permission from them that if they’re not there, can we still plant?' And yeah. So everything’s set to go."
Diaz grew up in Globeville and is making an effort to help local residents be directly involved in re-greening their neighborhood from the ground up.
"It makes it more personal and it gives us a responsibility to take care of what is ours versus when the city comes and plants trees, that’s their responsibility. So our intent is to combine everybody and have us have some togetherness," said Diaz.
It’s no secret that trees can help revive cities bogged down by industry and pollution. But some benefits are less obvious than others, says Colorado Urban Conservation Manager Chris Hawkins with the Nature Conservancy.
"The research is super abundant at this point that trees provide tons of benefits, not just, obviously, addressing heat. Trees can address air quality issues, especially around particulate matter, reducing particulate matter," said Hawkins.
"Trees also help with mental health. They get people out and, you know, recreating more and able to recreate and walk more, which helps with just physical health, cardiovascular health. They help certainly with, you know, perceptions of quality of life and then, you know, just generally support human health and wellbeing."
The list of tree benefits goes on. Tree canopies have been attributed to slower driving speeds, lower crime levels, and even improved healing time after surgery. In Globeville specifically, the need for these types of benefits is very high. Denver’s average tree canopy is 25%, while the Globeville area has just 5%. Some of the lowest tree canopy coverage in the entire city of Denver.
"And so one of the things that we can do to address heat is to create shade, right? And so areas in Denver that, you know, are shaded tend to, you know, have better human health outcomes and Globeville has about 5 percent tree canopy cover. That’s about 7 times less, 7 to 8 times less than a lot of wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. And that’s pretty classic kind of situation across a lot of cities, a lot of neighborhoods in Denver, a lot of cities nationally," said Hawkins.
Anthony Garcia Sr. grew up in Globeville. His family has been connected to the neighborhood for five generations. He’s the executive director of Birdseed Collective, an arts-focused nonprofit that runs the Globeville Rec. Center. And says the geography of the neighborhood has had particularly negative health impacts on its residents.
"I think the location of Globeville has always been very important to me because it has such defined boundaries, I-70, I-25, BNSF Railroad, as well as the The Platte River, South Platte River, you know, 'cause it’s kind of enclosed in its own little self, very tight community and neighborhood," he said.
"Now that I’m an adult, I could see the impact that that has caused on, you know, environmental health and overall health in general of the people that have lived in that neighborhood ’cause of high pollutants that were planted in the soil, that’s ran along that area of the river as well as, you know, air pollution and noise pollution from the railroad and the two highways that intersect right where our neighborhood is at."
Globeville was also home to multiple smelters beginning in the late 1800s, which deposited toxins like arsenic and lead across the neighborhood for over 100 years. Globeville became a designated Superfund site in 1993, with topsoil and residential lots being removed and replaced. That initiative left residents disappointed and frustrated, since many trees were removed and the new soil was too low in nutrients to support plant growth. That disappointment and frustration inspired a need for direct community involvement.
"Our neighbors have known about You know, the issues that we face for years now, but as it starts to get more like a spotlight put on our neighborhood and these issues, pots of money are popping up. And so we’ll see multiple organizations come out every year and just try to, you know, they all mean well, but part of their job is to find money, you know, and so they will come into the neighborhood and try to do their best to serve the neighborhood to get, you know, get a certain grant to make this happen. But the neighbors don’t respond to them that well because they have no relationship with anybody in the community," said Garcia Sr.
"Fortunately for us in our neighborhood, like I said, I was born and raised there. My mom lived there. My grandma, great-grandma, everybody has lived there for years. All these people, like, we’re a big family. So when we’re able to connect them to resources, they have, it’s coming from a trusting place.
The Nature Conservancy is an outside organizer and funder of efforts to support re-greening projects across the globe. They’re sensitive to the concerns Garcia mentioned.
"The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental organization in the world. I think it is our responsibility in that way to be able to show up with resources for community based partners for them to really lead their vision for their community, right? I think a dynamic that happens I think frequently is that outside organizations often come in I think with an agenda and with their own incentives and their own kind of narrative and Sometimes that gets forced on community-based organizations And that can be really tricky because, you know, as a community-based organization, I think sometimes it’s hard to turn away resources and collaboration. And I think the onus has to be on organizations that are showing up with resources to do so in a way that doesn’t, I think, hinder other things that a community is trying to address," said Colorado Urban Conservation Manager Chris Hawkins with the Nature Conservancy.
"So Birdseed Collective does a lot of different work in the community. What I would say is really significant is that Birdseed’s really been able to kind of stand up as an organization and move forward some of the urban community forestry work. And doing so in a way that also leverages some existing efforts like the Park People’s, Denver Digs Trees, etc. So, our goal has always been to try to come up with some kind of sustainable and durable community led model for greening and climate resilience. And this is, I think, one more milestone in kind of getting towards that."
The larger Globeville-Elyria-Swansea neighborhood needs to plant 10,000 trees in order to reach a 20 percent tree canopy rate. Local and outside organizations are stepping up to provide resources to meet this goal one tree at a time. In the end, the residents of Globeville will be the ones to care for these trees and watch them grow.
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