November 2026

Identifying Social Barriers to Equitable Tree Planting and Quantifying Potential Benefits to Overcoming Them (Part 2)

Lindsay Darling

GIS and data administrator

Chicago Region Trees Initiative

A recent survey of 1200 Chicago-area residents and 36 tree professionals found that residents agreed with positive statements about trees, including that trees made it more pleasant to be outside and that they improve air quality.

Tree professionals accurately assumed that residents would harbor these positive statements, but they overestimated resident’s concerns about some of the disservices that trees create. Roughly a quarter of residents agreed with the statements that trees are expensive to maintain but tree professionals thought that double would have that opinion. Fewer than half of residents agreed that trees damage sewer/water pipes and sidewalks, but professionals thought those around 90% would agree. Overall, resident hesitancy towards planting trees is not likely based in concerns about tree disservices and tree professionals may not need to spend effort combating these issues.

The survey also asked professionals about what strategies they use to help residents plant trees in their yards/parkways and compared their responses to barriers that residents identified. Tree professionals said that they found that providing free trees and delivering them were the most effective ways to encourage planting. However, only a quarter of residents stated that the cost of trees prevented them from buying them.

While this research identified some mismatches between residents and tree professionals, it also uncovered some strategies that may help trees get planted and taken care of. Tree professionals said that they have much higher uptake in street tree offerings if residents are approached by a neighbor or respected community members. Additionally, uptake of new trees is more likely if existing trees are well managed. If a community’s trees are in poor condition and/or hazardous, residents often have concerns that new trees will fall into similar disrepair.

For Part 1 of this article, see the October 2026 TREE Press.

This program was funded in part by TREE Fund's 2021 Bob Skiera Memorial Building Bridges Initiative and John P. White Grant Program.

Lead Donors

We are deeply grateful to the following people and organizations whose accumulated contributions to TREE Fund in 2026 recently surpassed $2,500:

Altec/ Styslinger Foundation

Douglas Anderson

Armstrong Arboriculture, LLC

Rachel Barker

Duke Energy

Mike Earl

Megan Fielding

NJ Arborists ISA

Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC

Brian Kralovic

Lewis Tree Service, Inc.

Fred Rader

Jeff Spohn

Utility Arborist Association

We'd like to thank all of our individual and corporate donors that have made a gift this year. Your donations are vital to our work in identifying and funding programs that support the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge and best practices in arboriculture and urban forestry.

Thank You, Tour des Trees Supporters!

Thank you to everyone that supported TREE Fund and our Tour des Trees riders this year while we rolled through the mountains of the Carolinas.

Because of your support, we hit our fundraising goal and raised over $422,000!

All the funds raised go towards supporting TREE Fund's mission of discovering and disseminating new knowledge and best practices in arboriculture and urban forestry.

Thank you also to all of our wonderful riders, volunteers, and staff who helped make this great year possible.

View our Flickr album to see photos from our Tour photographer, Chris Banks.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the 2027 Tour des Trees in Montreal, Quebec, August 3-9! Look for registration to open in mid-January.

TREE Fund's 2026 Free Webinar Series

Save the dates for our 2026 TREE Fund Webinar series. Webinars are based on research funded by TREE Fund grants and open to anyone to view. Thanks to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System for helping us again with these videos.

Stay tuned for these 2026 webinars.

Additional dates for this year will continue to be added.

Tuesday, November 10, 2026. 12:00pm CST

Connecting and Creating Municipal Forestry Bridges to Build Urban Forest Resources

Presenter: Richard Hauer, PhD

Registration link: November 10 Webinar Link

Tuesday, December 9, 2026, 12:00pm CST

Building equitable campus canopy across California: Bridging the stakeholders who design, plant, and maintain public school trees

Presenter: Kirsten Schwarz, PhD

Registration link: December 8 Webinar Link

See our Webinar page for more information. https://treefund.org/webinars

TREE Fund’s 1-hour webinars are free and offer 1.0 CEU credit for live broadcasts from the International Society of Arboriculture and the Society of American Foresters. Our website is updated regularly as we add on new webinar dates, so check the webinar page for details.

Missed a webinar? Watch it anytime on our website. You can also subscribe to our YouTube page.

Update on Webinars

For our December webinars, we will be switching to a new TREE Fund Zoom account for our webinar series. We'd like to thank the Alabama Extension for ten great years of hosting our Webinar Series and for all the work that goes into hosting. Don't worry, Beau Brodbeck will still be around serving as host for our webinars. With the switch, please be sure to save education@treefund.org in your email to receive webinar links. 

TREE Fund 2025 Impact Report

TREE Fund has completed its 2025 Impact Report after the completion of its annual audit.

Highlights from 2025 include:

• A new Strategic Plan adopted for 2025-2028
• $50,000 in scholarships awarded.
• $129,745 in grants awarded.
• A record number of TREE Fund Webinar attendees with 7,273, submitting 6,432 CEUs to ISA for certified arborists.
• 60 riders at the Tour des Trees participated in 14 outreach activities, plus other local meetups, and raised over $361,100.

Thank you to all our TREE Fund supporters and we look forward to closing out 2026 on a high note.

TREE Fund is on RoundUp: Automatically Donate During Purchases.

TREE Fund now has a listing on RoundUp.org, an official Financial Partner of Visa and Mastercard that lets supporters automatically donate the spare change from every swipe of their card.

Select TREE Fund as your preferred nonprofit for the next three months and have all your credit card purchases rounded up to the next dollar and have that spare change donated directly back.

We have two weeks to get at least 10 donors signed up to trigger an additional bonus donation from the company, so if you are able to round up your purchases, please visit our page on their site and sign up.

Book Club Webinar Next Month

Have you signed up for TREE Fund's Book Club yet?

We are finishing up the first book of our inaugural year, "The Nature of Our Cities," by Nadina Galle and will be hosting a webinar with the author on December 2 at 10:30am CST.

Also presenting during the webinar is TREE Fund Trustee and researcher featured in the book, Vivek Shandas, PhD.

If you have not yet signed up to be a part of the Book Club this season, do so today and make time to read.

A Simple Step. A Lasting Legacy.

A beneficiary designation can be one of the simplest ways to leave a lasting gift to TREE Fund, to advance tree research and education for generations to come.

You can name TREE Fund to receive all or a percentage of an eligible retirement account, life insurance policy, investment account, or bank account. A percentage gift allows you to provide for loved ones while also supporting a cause that matters to you.

Getting started is easy: contact your account provider or plan administrator and follow its beneficiary designation process. For investment and bank accounts, ask about transfer-on-death or payable-on-death options. If you have a donor-advised fund, ask the sponsoring organization about its process for recommending a charitable beneficiary through your legacy plan.

There may also be tax advantages. Distributions from traditional tax-deferred retirement accounts are generally taxable to individual heirs, while a qualified charity such as TREE Fund generally receives these assets without paying income tax. Your advisor can help determine which assets best fit your charitable and family goals.

When completing your designation, use:

Legal name: Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund)

Tax ID: 37-1018692

Review your designations periodically, especially after major life changes. Beneficiary designations generally take precedence over instructions in a will, and some retirement plans require spousal consent to name another beneficiary.

If you include TREE Fund in your plans, please let us know so we can thank you and learn about your wishes.

This information is educational, not legal or tax advice. Please consult your qualified advisors about your circumstances.

National Urban and Community Forestry Ten Year Action Plan Survey: Final Call For Comments

From time to time, TREE Fund will share requests for proposals from other organizations for projects that align with our mission. Below is a request for input on the National Urban and Community Forestry Ten Year Action Plan.

The congressionally-mandated National Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Ten Year Action Plan creates a guiding framework that optimizes innovations, resources, and collaborations for the field of urban and community forestry. You can review the draft plan and make comments by visiting the link below. Public comments period is open until December 4.

Public Comment Form

TREE Fund

Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund

1755 Park St. Suite #200, Naperville, IL 60563

(630) 369-8300

treefund@treefund.org

www.treefund.org

TREE Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to support scientific discovery and dissemination of new knowledge and best practices in the fields of arboriculture and urban forestry.

TREE Fund earned our 2026 Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency. Check out our nonprofit profile to keep up to date with our impact. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/shared/17bf1c65-c913-4096-8695-11f0dc3fa73f.

Keep this link handy, we want to make sure you always have the information you need to support our work with trust and confidence.

TREE Fund is proud to announce that its strong financial health and ongoing accountability and transparency has earned a Three-Star Rating from Charity Navigator. This rating designates TREE Fund as an official “Give with Confidence” charity, indicating that our organization is using its donations effectively based on Charity Navigator’s criteria.