Key Findings and Recommendations for
Activating Environmental Justice
Across the 107 UFMPs analyzed, environ-
mental justice has not been a central theme.
In general, environmental justice visions, goals,
and/or implementation strategies have lacked
both attention and detail. Specifically, recogni-
tional justice content was missing from most
UFMPs, with the exception of
Seattle's. This
omission suggests that practitioners may not
be prioritizing the perspectives of disadvan-
taged groups within decision-making or broader
community engagement. When certain groups
are unrecognized or underrecognized, their
collective and unique views are not expressed
in decision-making. Furthermore, while many
UFMPs highlighted the importance of commu-
nity engagement and public education regarding
urban tree benefits, other aspects of procedural
justice were absent from most plans, such as
engaging residents in different languages, building
trust, and communicating risks and liability.
Of the 107 UFMPs analyzed, only 12 referred to
the inequitable distribution of maintenance proce-
dures. Such inequities in maintenance likely arose
from the underfunding of municipal departments
(Roman
et al., 2021). Decades of disinvestment
and lack of proper tree care can create the
impression that a municipality cannot maintain its
existing trees, resulting in community members
not trusting municipalities to care for new tree
plantings (Carmichael
and McDonough, 2018). This
cycle can contribute to increased resistance to tree
planting in neglected or under-resourced neigh-
borhoods, because even when a tree is offered
The Tree Ambassador – Promotor Forestal Program with City Plants in Los Angeles
is an example of paid community engagement work to support tree planting and
stewardship in under-resourced neighborhoods. Photo Courtesy City Plants
28 CityTREES
