American Forests
Founded in 1875, American Forests is the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the U.S. Its mission is to restore threatened forest ecosystems and inspire people to value and protect urban and wildland forests. In the past 25 years alone, American Forests has planted nearly 50 million trees in more than 1,000 high-impact forest restoration projects. These projects have restored hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat, protected vital watersheds and sequestered millions of tons of greenhouse gases. American Forests is also one of the nation’s leading advocates for expanding urban tree canopy and green space, and a key funder of urban forest initiatives that have transformed communities across the country. Learn more at www.americanforests.org.www.americanforests.org
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Search complete. 8 mentions across 8 episodes found for "American Forests".
Sep 25, 2026
speaker_0HOST
And shade is another kind of infrastructure.
speaker_0HOST
American Forests' Tree Equity Score helps show where tree cover, heat, income, health, and other conditions overlap across urban neighborhoods.
speaker_0HOST
The tool does not turn a living place into a number.
speaker_0HOST
It makes an overlooked pattern easier to see.
JennyHOST
[gentle music] So who actually decides which trees count as record-breakers? Believe it or not, there's a real scoring system, like a sport, but for trees.
JennyHOST
It's run by a group called American Forests, and they've kept track of the country's biggest trees since 1940.
JennyHOST
To become a champion, a tree gets measured three ways, how big around its trunk it is, how tall it is, and how wide its branches spread.
JennyHOST
Add those numbers together with a little math trick for the branch part, and you get a total score.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that and cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forest examining tree canopies across the country.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And I want to read this so I don't get this wrong.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
As I look at my notes here, they found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33 percent less tree canopy on average than than majority white communities.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that and cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forest examining tree canopies across the country.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And I want to read this so I don't get this wrong.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
As I look at my notes here, they found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33 percent less tree canopy on average than majority white communities and neighborhoods with 90 percent or more of their residents living in poverty have 41 percent less tree canopy than communities with only 10 percent or less population in poverty.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that in cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forest examining tree canopies across the country.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And I want to read this so I don't get this wrong.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
As I look at my notes here, they found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33 percent less tree canopy on average than majority white communities and neighborhoods with 90 percent or more of their residents living in poverty have 41 percent less tree canopy than communities with only 10 percent or less population in poverty.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between, like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus, like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that, and cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forests examining tree canopies across the country, and I wanna read this so I don't get this wrong as I look at my notes here.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
They found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33% less tree canopy on average than majority white c- uh, communities, and neighborhoods with 90% or more of their residents living in poverty have 41% less tree canopy than communities with only 10% or less population in poverty.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And that's big because, again, as we talked about shade, just even the shade from a tree can reduce the temperature when you're standing in the shade of that tree or any sort of shade structure, can reduce temperatures by, like, 30 degrees.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that in cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forest examining tree canopies across the country.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And I want to read this so I don't get this wrong.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
As I look at my notes here, they found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33 percent less tree canopy on average than majority white communities and neighborhoods with 90 percent or more of their residents living in poverty have 41 percent less tree canopy than communities with only 10 percent or less population in poverty.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
Yeah, David, it seems like there's a direct correlation between like, you know, how wealthy you are and how poor you are versus like, you know, how much access you have to shade and, you know, things like that in cooler temperatures.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
There was actually a study done by American Forest examining tree canopies across the country.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
And I want to read this so I don't get this wrong.
Jesse MerrickGUEST
As I look at my notes here, they found that neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have 33 percent less tree canopy on average than majority white communities and neighborhoods with 90 percent or more of their residents living in poverty have 41 percent less tree canopy than communities with only 10 percent or less population in poverty.