California ReLeaf recently supported the recruitment and training of two interns for The Watershed Project’s Tree Team Project who will act as Richmond Rain to Roots program ambassadors in Richmond’s Iron Triangle and Sante Fe, two low-income, high-crime neighborhoods in the city.
Training for the interns included 20 hours of basic watershed awareness curriculum that included urban forestry concepts and benefits, climate change topics, storm water pollution and an introduction to green infrastructure solutions. An additional 16 hours was spent training them for the outreach portion of the program. The interns learned how to promote the tree-planting program both to individuals and groups, with half of this training occurring in the field. During this time, 42 trees and 8 tree box filters were planted by the Tree Team interns, Groundwork Richmond, Richmond Trees, and volunteers from the community.
Derek Hitchcock of The Watershed Project says, “Our Tree Team interns have become young leaders in their community for environmental awareness and stewardship – truly successful as Richmond Rain to Roots program ambassadors in the Iron Triangle and Santa Fe neighborhoods. California ReLeaf can be proud of the part it played in changing the lives of our Tree Team interns as well as their communities.”
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