Oscar Gomez for Borderless MagazineIn Brighton Park, high school students have planted over 140 trees in the last four years. Now, they’re training students to do the same in Back of the Yards.
In their last week of school, Richards Career Academy High School students picked up shovels and dug holes to plant eight trees around their school in Back of the Yards.
For most of the students, the event was their first time planting a tree, but they hoped it wouldn’t be their last. They were initially hesitant as tree experts guided them through the process. But with each tree they planted, they became more comfortable forcing their shovels into the dirt and picking up soil.
Among the student council members planting trees at Richards was sophomore Alexa Jimenez.
“I thought it was a good way [just to get outside], “Jimenez said. “I don’t really go outside on my own.”
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Much like other Southwest Side neighborhoods, Jimenez’s neighborhood lacks a substantial tree canopy and experiences some of the hottest temperatures in Chicago and the most polluted air.
For the past four years, students at nearby Thomas Kelly College Preparatory High School in Brighton Park have been working to change that, looking for residents interested in getting a free tree planted on their property or planting the trees themselves. This year, they expanded their efforts to Back of the Yards, teaching students at Richards how to replicate their efforts in their neighborhood.
Before the tree planting event, Back of the Yards students learned about environmental issues in their community and how to canvas in their neighborhood in multiple languages. Richards students then knocked on doors to find residents interested in getting a free tree planted on their property.
The initiative began in 2021 with students at Kelly and Curie Metropolitan High School in Brighton Park who started tree-planting clubs called the Truffula Club. The group, which receives support and resources from Openlands and Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), was named after fictional trees in Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax.”
Over the past four years, students have planted over 140 trees across Brighton Park. They’ve also raised funds to distribute free public transportation vouchers to students, hosted seed planting workshops, researched pollution in their neighborhood and collected soil samples for lead testing at DePaul University.
They also trained students at Burroughs Elementary School in their community on how they can join in the effort. Burroughs students planted their own trees for the first time, the same week that Richards students did.
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Openlands, a non-profit conservation organization, provides the trees and logistical support. It also funds stipends for students’ work, which involves canvassing residents and business owners to allow them to plant free trees on their property.
Tom Ebeling, senior forestry program manager at Openlands, said the goal was to help address the higher levels of air pollution the Southwest Side faces at a grassroots level.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, help to clean up the air and reduce the area’s respiratory illness risk.
However, slowly making Brighton Park greener hasn’t been the only objective. The real achievement, Ebeling said, has been how students have engaged with their neighbors, building trust and educating them on environmental issues and forestry through the club.
Truffula’s work involves the richest community engagement of Openlands’ forestry efforts, said Ebeling.
“The quality of the project and the outcome of the project, as far as getting people to value and actively care for the urban forest really pays dividends,” Ebeling said. “Planting 10 trees with a group of high schoolers in their own neighborhood, in my mind, is a way bigger deal than planting 50 trees in a park somewhere with people who don’t really have ownership over the project.”
Ebeling has noticed that residents are more receptive to students from their neighborhood knocking on their doors and offering them a free tree to plant on their property. He said that students have gone a long way in getting buy-in from residents because they speak the same language, are young and are from the same community.
BPNC agrees that students are essential to this initiative.
“A lot of residents are not aware of this information,” said Leslie Reyes, community schools manager at BPNC. “I think that it’s extremely important that we have the students involved and that we give them all the information and prep them with all the tools that they need to be the ones to speak to this because it’s a huge issue in the community.”
Ericka Delgado — a former student and cofounder who returned to Kelly to support the club as a supervisor — said joining the club was an opportunity to learn how to help in her mom’s garden.
“This club just means a lot to me,” said Delgado. “I just love that the students can experience this and learn more, care about the environment, and become future leaders.”
For many students, the club has helped bring noticeable change to their neighborhoods while planting seeds of civic engagement and leadership.
Rachel Mei was a freshman when she first heard of the club. At first, the thought of knocking on strangers’ doors was nerve-wracking, but she slowly became more comfortable with the idea.
Since joining the club, she stepped outside her comfort zone, speaking with community members, memorizing scripts in English and Spanish and spearheading fundraisers and community engagement events beyond tree-planting.
“I definitely feel like I’ve grown a lot as a leader,” Mei said. “The fear kind of dwindled.”
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