STL Neighborhood Foresters

STL Neighborhood Foresters is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that equips, educates, and empowers residents to improve the health and vitality of the St. Louis urban tree canopy.

Tree care can take many forms, but we began with a focus on three simple but impactful direct care tasks: mulching, watering, and clearance pruning.

Mulching and watering are both critical to help new trees survive transplant shock and become established. Clearance pruning addresses trees’ conflicts with the urban environment to prevent lifespan limiting damage.

Our mission is to empower residents to make STL a better place to live by improving our tree canopy. In the unforgiving urban environment, simple issues can become death sentences for trees. Many urban trees decline before maturity; climate change adds even more stress. Growing the canopy requires we improve trees’ living conditions and address causes of premature decline, a task too big for Forestry to tackle alone. Our new program, Neighborhood Foresters, partners with the Forestry Division to provide residents gear, training and official permission to help care for city trees. It is our eventual goal to expand Neighborhood Foresters throughout the City of St. Louis and beyond! Communities will benefit most if we work together to improve our urban forestry efforts across the STL metro region. We are excited to build community partnerships and demonstrate to residents ways we can support them in creating healthier, happier communities.