- I don't pretend that, well, if we just added trees here all the problems we have with inequity would be addressed, but they are one piece of it.

- [Michelle] Cassie Tharinger has spent a lot of time thinking about trees in Providence.

Specifically, what neighborhoods lack trees and what can she do about it?

- [Cassie] We see that we have higher tree canopy in areas that are higher income or have higher rates of home ownership.

And we have lower tree canopy in areas with lower income, in areas that have more communities of color living.

- [Michelle] Tharinger is the executive director of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program.

The nonprofit works with the city of Providence and other groups to offer free street trees to people in the community.

- This is a map of tree canopy cover in the city of Providence.

- [Michelle] Blackstone, one of the wealthiest areas in the capital city has the highest tree canopy at 51%.

Trees are abundant on the east side of Providence.

Wayland and College Hill also have some of the highest tree canopies in the city.

But poor neighborhoods like Upper and Lower South Providence and Washington Park are among the lowest.

- Decades and decades have contributed to this, to tree inequity.

Things like redlining, historic redlining, how policies around zoning and land use have played out over time, highway relocation.

- [Michelle] Tharinger wants people who've been affected by tree inequity, like Leo Mota, to have a role in fixing it.

Mota's seen how greenery can improve a community.

A few years ago, about a dozen trees were planted in his neighborhood on the west end of Providence.

- Before we planted the trees there was broken glass everywhere.

I mean, you still catch a few broken bottles here but it's not as much.

Every time we are taking care of the trees, people say, oh, nice job.

If they see something on the ground, they'll pick it up.

Before, nobody really cared.

(clipper clicking) - [Michelle] Mota works for Garden Time, a group that prepares incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals for the workforce by training them for fields like landscaping.

- I believe my neighborhood has benefited from those trees 'cause it's made the neighborhood look a lot better.

It's helping with the shade for the children.

It doesn't look neglected anymore.

- [Michelle] And the environmental benefits are well documented.

Trees help lower energy consumption, capture pollutants in the air, and filter runoff.

Rhode Island State Forester, Tee Jay Boudreau says trees also reduce what's known as the urban heat island effect, when dense areas of pavements and buildings absorb and retain heat.

- We've noticed here in Rhode Island through studies that we've done that on any given day the temperature can be dramatically lower in a shaded area, as much as like 12 degrees versus one spot to the next.

The data showed us that one part of town it's 94 degrees in the same city, a different part of town that is more canopied, it's 82 degrees.

- At the same time.

- Same time, yeah.

- [Michelle] More than half of the state is forested and Boudreau wants to see more cities and towns increase their tree canopy.

He views urban forestry as a way to curb carbon emissions.

- The work we're doing shows concrete data that allows decision makers to put trees in the ground based on the best locations for them.

So we're giving them the information that they might need in order to make the right decisions about where to plant trees, and that makes it a lot easier for them to spend their dollars in an area where they know it's gonna make a difference.

- [Michelle] American Forest, a nonprofit conservation organization, released this interactive map for Rhode Island a few years ago.

It shows a neighborhood's tree cover in relation to its demographic information and gives a score for each community.

- It might sound obvious, but the goal is to get to a tree equity score of 100.

- Yeah, that's everyone's goal is to get 100, which doesn't mean that there is a completely planted base of trees where every tree could possibly go.

It means that the neighborhoods within a community are equitable to each other.

- [Michelle] Those scores showed what people who live in urban core areas already knew.

Places like Central Falls and Pawtucket, among others, need more trees.

- The work that we did to develop that tree equity score is literally house lot by house lot.

So we can determine the best location in front of an individual's home or in any location in the community.

- [Michelle] Boudreau says those tree equity scores mobilized communities to act faster to increase their tree canopy.

John Campanini agrees.

He's the technical advisor for the Rhode Island Tree Council, a non-profit organization aimed at improving urban forestry statewide.

- We've seen more citizen-led tree advocacy where we're working with groups to plant trees in athletic fields or in their neighborhood.

- [Michelle] Campanini previously served as the Providence City Forester for 28 years.

He says, when cities and towns were developed, too often trees were an afterthought.

- No one ever told me not to plant or prohibit me from planting, or the parks department, from planting in certain area because of race, color, creed, economic status, or what have you that.

But there were just so many inferior environments in that part of town because of the way it was developed.

- [Michelle] And planting trees can be costly.

For instance professionally planting this red maple can range from 400 to $500, and putting one in a sidewalk can be even more expensive.

- There's places where we can remove asphalt and create pervious soils, which will accept water and drain water, but actually sustain trees long time.

And those are the type of things that cost a lot of money.

- This one was growing down.

- [Michelle] It's money that Leo Mota believes is worth the investment, and he's doing his part to keep these trees alive.

- We go out there every week, water them, we do the tree pick care, make sure that they have mulch, make sure that they look nice.

- [Michelle] He wants to make sure his 10 year old son reaps the rewards of more greenery.

- I feel, especially someone like myself with a criminal history, we've done things to deteriorate our community, so it almost feels good to help and try to rebuild it.

Our children live here, you know, and they're the future.

We want different lives for them than the ones that we had if we had rough lives.

- For Boudreau, expanding tree coverage is more than a landscape issue.

It's a way for Rhode Island to help mitigate climate change.

What do you say to people who will hear things that you say and say, we need to do a lot more than plant trees to reduce the effects of climate change?

- I think they're right.

I think there is a definitely a lot to do.

I think there's personal responsibility and I think that there is responsibility towards organizations and corporations throughout the world and the United States.

But what we're doing and what we have the capability of doing in the forestry program is helping communities plant trees, plan for planting trees, and to recognize the importance of green spaces in their community.

- [Michelle] Communities are taking note.

The Providence Neighborhood planting program has increased the number of trees it's getting in the ground, averaging 550 a year.

- I think there has, fortunately, been a real increase in awareness of just even that term, tree equity, five years ago, knowing that wasn't even a saying, no one talked about that.

The problem was there, the disparity was there, but it wasn't a conversation being had.

It was wasn't something people were really plugging into.

- [Michelle] But now Tharinger and many others are focused on the future.

- We're not gonna see the real benefits and impacts of this of this tree's canopy for 10, 20, 25, 30 years down the road.

So we're really, we're planting trees for our children and our grandchildren.

We're in it for the long haul.

(bright music)