More trees are on the way to South L.A.
The Korean Youth + Community Center (KYCC), which plants around 1,000 trees each year in Koreatown, announced last month that it expects to plant an extra 1,000 trees in the upcoming year after receiving hefty private funding. The nonprofit organization also plans to widen its reach to South L.A. as well as Watts and Ladera Heights.
The non-profit, on a webpage dedicated to its “Free Trees” project, says it has planted “more than 10,000 free street trees for residents in the city of Los Angeles,” since the year 2000. Free street trees are trees planted along Los Angeles streets at no charge to residents.
“KYCC aims to promote sustainability in our community, provide cooling of dense urban areas such as Koreatown, and help support LA’s Green New Deal goal of planting 90,000 trees and increasing the tree canopy by at least 50% by the year 2028 in densely populated, underserved communities with the least shade,” the organization announced in a press release.
KYCC has raised over $600,000 in funding towards hopes to ramp up planting in Los Angeles. As noted in a press release, Sooman Lee, the founder of SM Entertainment and “one of the pioneers of K-POP,” is a partner of the project after donating heavily to the cause.
“Street trees reduce pollution, provide cooling, save energy, and make neighborhoods more livable,” the organization wrote in September’s press release.
While KYCC has not revealed specific details about the plan to expand the Free Trees project into South L.A., a scientific plan released in August by the USC Urban Trees Initiative lays out a blueprint for how the area would benefit from increased planting.
The initiative notes that South L.A. and University Park in particular experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas, as well as “elevated levels of particulate matter” that hurt air quality.
The plan outlines that trees reduce temperatures while providing more shade for residents and visitors. Trees also naturally remove particulate matter from the air and environment.
In the concluding analysis of the scientific plan, the Urban Trees Initiative reveals its findings and recommendations for where trees are most needed in South L.A.
The initiative highlighted 41 street segments that add up to a length of three miles that would be the best locations for new trees. Common traits used to decide where trees should be planted were the amount of foot traffic, density of trees in the area, and the ability to plant in the area.
KYCC’s tree-planting project officially started ramping up late September at an event where Lee and KYCC representatives physically planted a single Ginko tree in front of Koreatown’s Korean Pavilion. South L.A. residents can apply for free trees to be planted on their streets on the KYCC website.