City Smart / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California : The Joys of Planting an Urban Forest
Scott Wilson
Age: 73
Job: Plants trees, landscape architect for Northeast Trees, a nonprofit agency
Locale: Northeast Los Angeles
Hours: 8-12 hours a day
Pay: volunteer basis/retired
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What I do: I retired and my wife said to me, “for better or for worse but not for lunch,” so I went out and started planting trees.
Pretty soon friends started showing up to join me. We have planted over 6,000 trees in 5 1/2 years.
We do basically tree planting and maintenance projects. We do educational programs for people so they can learn how to care for trees and understand how important they are to the environment.
Our goal is to create an urban forest in the northeast area.
Why I do it: I grew up on a farm in Oregon that used to be a game reserve. We were always interested in saving animals. . . . Northeast Trees puts projects together and we see things happen. I meet people who are kindred spirits.
