The Houston TREE Initiative

TREE: Together for Restoration and Environmental Equality

Planting trees in Houston’s hottest neighborhoods

A student-run nonprofit started by Vedika Tandon and run by Vedika, Neha Ravi and Juliette Oudinot. We plant and care for trees in the parts of Houston that have the least shade.

See our impact Join a planting

Slingshot Challenge honorable mention Top 50 out of 2,300 entries

TREE at a glance

The mission

Some Houston neighborhoods are up to 17° hotter than others because they have so few trees. TREE plants trees there, comes back to keep them alive, and teaches residents how to look after them.

Our goals

The impact

More than 1,000 trees planted along the Columbia Tap Trail and in Alief, working with 8 organizations and 300+ volunteers, and recognized by National Geographic.

See the numbers

Why we plant trees

Many of Houston’s lower-income neighborhoods have very few trees, which makes them urban heat islands. Residents there deal with more heat, worse air and more flooding, and that affects their physical and mental health.

We want Houston to be greener, healthier and fairer for everyone who lives here.

17°

How much hotter a Houston neighborhood with few trees can be than a shaded one on the same day.

~14%

The difference in tree cover between the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods. Rice University Kinder Institute

Our goals

Everything TREE does comes back to three goals.

1
Raise awareness

Help Houstonians see how many of their neighbors are affected by environmental injustice, and what they can do to help.
2
Plant trees

Plant thousands of trees in the neighborhoods with the highest summer temperatures and the least tree cover.
3
Care for trees

New trees are fragile for their first few months, so TREE goes back to water and mulch them until they can survive on their own.

Next target: 2,000 trees

1,000 planted so far. Halfway there.

Get involved

Next planting

Oct24

October Tree Planting

Saturday · 3616 Briley St, Houston

RSVP by email

Donate

Support a planting

Donations fund tree plantings in Houston’s underserved communities. All donations go to tree plantings and are tax-deductible. To make your donation tax-exempt, email houstontreeinitiative@gmail.com.

Contact

Work with us

If your school, group or neighborhood wants to host a planting, get in touch.

Email us Instagram

Our impact

Trees planted: 1,000+; Native trees in Third Ward and Alief, planted by TREE or alongside partners.
Organizations collaborated with: 8; Nonprofits, neighborhood groups and city partners. See the list
Volunteers: 300+; People who have planted, mulched and watered trees at TREE events.
Website visitors: —; Total visits to this website, counted live.

2 Houston neighborhoods: Third Ward & Alief
7 events organized
150+ older trees mulched
4 miles of trail planted in Third Ward

Trees planted at each event

Planting for Shade, Columbia Tap480+
Alief Planting #1120+
Columbia Tap Planting #2100+
Columbia Tap Planting #3150+
Alief Planting #2150+

National Geographic Slingshot Challenge: Honorable Mention

The Slingshot Challenge is an annual competition run by the National Geographic Society. It asks young people around the world to share a one-minute video about an environmental problem in their community and what they are doing to solve it.

TREE’s video presented the initiative’s work and what it had accomplished so far. Out of 2,300 entries, it was named one of the top 50 and received an honorable mention. The team hopes the video helps people understand TREE’s goals and inspires them to fight for tree equity wherever they live.

Watch TREE’s Slingshot Challenge video (1 min).

Top 50placement
2,300entries
Top ~2%of all entries

The team

Vedika Tandon

Founder & President

Add information here.

Plantings and events

Volunteers gathered for the Planting for Shade event on the Columbia Tap Trail

Rows of newly planted, mulched saplings along the trail

Third Ward · Columbia Tap Trail

Planting for Shade

480+ trees planted · 100+ volunteers · 4-mile trail

At this planting we collaborated with numerous other environmental organizations, primarily Friends of Columbia Tap, to help increase tree coverage in Third Ward.

With Friends of Columbia Tap

Large group of volunteers at Alief Planting #1

Volunteers digging and planting a tree on an Alief esplanade

Alief · Neighborhood esplanades

Alief Planting #1

120+ trees planted · 50+ volunteers

At this planting we collaborated with the Alief Super Neighborhood Council, AliefVotes, and SEWA International to increase green spaces and shade in Alief.

With Alief Super Neighborhood Council, AliefVotes & Sewa International

Preparing planting beds along the Columbia Tap Trail

Third Ward · AIDS Memorial Garden

Tree Care Day

150+ trees mulched · 2 planting beds built

At this event, we collaborated with Friends of Columbia Tap and Texas A&M AgriLife to help care for trees and prepare soil for native plants along the Columbia Tap Trail in Third Ward.

With Friends of Columbia Tap & Texas A&M AgriLife

Volunteers planting a sapling along the trail

Third Ward · Columbia Tap Trail

Columbia Tap Planting #2

100+ trees planted & mulched · 20+ volunteers

At this planting we collaborated with Friends of Columbia Tap to help increase tree coverage in Third Ward and make the Columbia Tap Trail an accessible, shady green space for residents to access.

With Friends of Columbia Tap

Volunteers planting trees along a residential street

Volunteer hauling mulch in a wheelbarrow along the trail

Third Ward · Columbia Tap Trail

Columbia Tap Planting #3

150+ trees planted & mulched · 30+ volunteers

At this event, we collaborated with Friends of Columbia Tap, Texas A&M AgriLife, and other amazing organizations to help create Houston’s green corridor and to increase tree coverage in Third Ward along the Columbia Tap Trail.

With Friends of Columbia Tap, Texas A&M AgriLife & others

Volunteers planting trees along S. Dairy Ashford in Alief

Volunteers in safety vests planting trees

Alief · S. Dairy Ashford Organized by TREE

Alief Planting #2

150+ trees planted & mulched · 40+ volunteers

As the primary organizers of this planting, we worked closely with the Alief Super Neighborhood Council and Sewa International to help finish up the shading of S. Dairy Ashford in Alief.

With Alief Super Neighborhood Council & Sewa International

Group photo of attendees and speakers at the TREE Initiative and AliefVotes workshop

Barry Ward, executive director of Trees for Houston, presenting at the workshop

Alief · Public workshop

TREE Initiative + AliefVotes Workshop

2 guest speakers · 4 partner organizations

At this event, we collaborated with AliefVotes, the Alief Super Neighborhood Council, Friends of Columbia Tap, and Trees for Houston to present a workshop on learning about the work that goes into community initiatives, the importance of tree coverage, and how community members can get involved.

We had two incredible guest speakers: Ed Pettitt, President of Friends of Columbia Tap, and Barry Ward, Executive Director of Trees for Houston.

With AliefVotes, Alief Super Neighborhood Council, Friends of Columbia Tap & Trees for Houston

Watch the full recording

Photos from our plantings

Volunteers planting, mulching and watering trees across Third Ward and Alief. Hover to pause, and click any photo to see it larger.

Background research

These sources are the basis for the TREE Initiative. They document environmental inequality in Houston and around the world.

Aerial view comparing a tree-covered neighborhood with one that has few trees

Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Houston’s poorer areas are left unshaded

Using the Tree Equity Score, the Kinder Institute found that socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and communities of color suffer the most from urban tree inequality in the U.S. It also found a gap of about 14% in tree canopy between the wealthiest and the poorest neighborhoods.

Read the Urban Edge article

Map of tree cover across Houston neighborhoods

The Guardian

How America’s treeless streets are fueling inequality

“You can’t even be on the street because of the heat,” said Adelea-Lopez, who takes the bus to her seamstress job. “There aren’t a lot of trees. There are a lot of apartments. A lot of cement.”

Read the article

Downtown Houston skyline with trees in the foreground

HARC

A Case for Cool Trees

“Trees infuse resilience into urban communities by mitigating extreme heat, alleviating flood risk, capturing carbon, conserving energy, improving environmental quality, and contributing to community health and wellbeing. However, trees are not evenly distributed across Houston, which means all residents do not experience the benefits they provide.”

Read the report

Harris County

Climate Justice and Action Plan

In 2023, the Harris County Commissioners Court Office of Sustainability created a countywide, equity-centered Climate Justice and Action Plan. It aims to increase collaboration with communities, put community voices at the center of decisions, and show how equity should drive climate action planning.

Read the plan

American Forests

Tree Equity Score

This map shows tree equity in regions across the United States, including every Houston neighborhood.

See your city’s score

Dr. Robert D. Bullard

The “Father of Environmental Justice”

Dr. Bullard was one of TREE’s biggest inspirations. He studied environmental inequality in depth and was one of the first advocates to push for all people to have equal protection under environmental regulations.

Learn about his work

Reading list

These books shaped TREE’s mission by showing how environmental inequality is built into society and what it takes to fight it. As climate change gets worse, we need to slow it down and also help the communities hit hardest by it.