UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

The LA Urban Forest Equity Collective (UFEC) co-produced a new method of classifying urban space, the Planting Tiers Framework, which allows community members, planners, and decision makers to consider varying levels of tree planting difficulty based on the built environment. This framework accounts for the limitations imposed on canopy expansion in areas that have been highly developed, historically disinvested, and where a preponderance of impervious surfaces limits planting opportunities.

Articulating a common language and enacting a targeted, coordinated prioritization and action plan can facilitate progress toward urban forest equity in areas where physical constraints exist. The tiered model presented here emerged from a necessity for scalability, and it seeks to codify new terminology for measuring levels of investment, trade offs, and opportunities to reach meaningful solutions to the systemic problem of urban forestry inequity. The tiers reflect types of interventions and levels of investments needed to reach a more equitably distributed tree canopy, from individual streets to council districts and larger political jurisdictions throughout Los Angeles.

This guidebook was written by Krystle Yu, a graduate of the Masters in Urban Planning program through the University of California Los Angeles, with guidance from the greater UFEC team.