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Trees for People: Growing an Urban Community Food and Native Forest Project

The Trees for People: Growing an Urban Community Food & Native Forest project seeks to increase the food security of underserved communities in Wai‘anae and Waimānalo. It accomplishes this by teaching community members how to produce a portion of their own food using agroforestry techniques. The project is funded by a $5 million, 5-year grant from the USDA Forest Service Urban & Community Forestry Program. Working with community partners, Grow Good Hawaii is promoting agroforestry and distributing 2,000 trees (mostly fruit trees) as well as food and native understory plants to “backyard growers” in Wai‘anae and Waimānalo.

To make establishing a garden easier, Grow Good Hawaii is developing “Backyard Agroforestry Blueprints.” These template designs will enable project participants to apply agroforestry techniques in compact urban spaces. By using agroforestry techniques, they will be able to improve tree health, grow understory species to increase plant diversity (thereby reducing pest pressure) and minimize bare ground (increasing water retention and reducing weed recruitment). The use of an agroforestry approach will thus enable participants to increase their food security, while enjoying the benefits of improved health, increased access to nature, and greater tree canopy (shade and cooling).

In the Trees for People Project, Grow Good Hawaii is working with the following well-respected partners, many which have served their communities for several decades:

  • ‘Elepaio Social Services Services of the Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (Wai’anae)
  • Hoa ‘Āina O Mākaha (Wai’anae)
  • Hui Mālama O Ke Kai Foundation (Waimānalo)
  • Kupu
  • The Urban Garden Center of the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Maximizing Tree Survival for Overall Success

Learning from other’s experiences, the project is focusing on tree survival and program participant retention, rather than only on the number of trees planted. Key strategies for achieving a realistic target tree survival rate of at least 70% are: 

  • Providing intensive maintenance support and monitoring on a regular basis;
  • Development of a workforce—supported by professional horticulturalists, arborists and landscape architects—who can provide ongoing (tiered) support;      
  • Establishing community learning gardens at 4 partner sites;
  • Recruiting 10 ambassadors to create gardens and promote the project in their communities; 
  • Providing Backyard Agroforestry Blueprints that are easy to follow and adapted to each specific climate zone; 
  • Planting trees that are well-adapted to the climate zone; 
  • Using simple technology to monitor tree health; and
  • Offering timed drip irrigation systems to participants to ensure adequate watering.

The long-term aim of the Trees for People Project is to convert this investment by the USDA Forest Service into permanent, food-producing green infrastructure that also increases biodiversity and strengthens the community. The aim is not only to increase individual productive capacity, but to increase the productive capacity of communities working together.


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