Tree Trust Was Founded On A Simple Belief
A reflection from G. Rolf Svendsen, Co-Founder & Director Emeritus
I was a University of Minnesota graduate student in the early 1970s when I began wondering how Minneapolis might reclaim the neglected stretch of riverfront near St. Anthony Falls. Years of trash dumped over its banks had made it an attractive nuisance. My boss at the time, the Minneapolis City Coordinator, had a solution: 100 teenagers.
Minneapolis called the program TREE, The Riverfront Environmental Effort. Teenagers aged 15 to 18, many with barriers to employment, could be hired at minimum wage. That summer, we put those young people to work clearing trails, building timber steps, and planting trees along the riverfront, creating river access near St. Anthony Main that’s still there today.
It was also a period of high unemployment nationwide. The federal government’s response was the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which funded youth employment during summer break. This Minneapolis model worked. In 1976, I approached Don Willeke, a Minneapolis attorney active in the national urban forestry movement, and we founded Tree Trust. Our mission was simple: employ young people and plant trees.
Around that time, Dutch elm disease had reached the Twin Cities. As Minneapolis Park Commissioner, I traveled to Chicago and Detroit to see what, if anything, they were doing to slow the disease’s spread. Both cities were cutting down entire city blocks of stately, shade-producing elms and burning them. Since 90 percent of Minneapolis’s boulevard trees were elms, root-grafted to one another, we could either fight the disease or end up like a cold Omaha.
Willeke badgered the Legislature and Governor Anderson to secure funding to combat the disease. Minnesota also established the nation’s first state Urban Forest Council, of which Willeke was the first chair. Tree Trust put young people to work in that fight as well, partnering with communities across the Twin Cities to establish and maintain municipal nurseries.
Did you know that Tree Trust was originally named Twin Cities Tree Trust?
The crews grew from there. We weren’t always welcomed at first. More than once, we heard some version of: “Teenagers, what are they going to do, paint rocks?” But the model held. Communities learned that these youth crews were reliable, essential partners in park development, planting, and maintaining the urban forest, while also gaining job skills.
From those first crews, we continued to grow, expanding to include career pathways, environmental education, and community forestry while engaging thousands of volunteers. We launched our social enterprise, Landscape Services, over 20 years ago, providing high-quality outdoor construction, landscaping, and tree care, generating revenue that helps sustain Tree Trust’s nonprofit mission.
Thank you to the teenagers, young adults, staff, volunteers, and others who have taken part in Tree Trust’s programs: building, planting, teaching employable skills, and giving back to their communities. Your good work is visible everywhere across the Twin Cities metro area. It is rare to find a park, trail, lake, creek, playground, or open space without some trace of Tree Trust.
