Ruston High School students studying green careers and social equity put their knowledge to work, planting dozens of trees at Duncan park and Ruston High alongside local Weyerhaeuser Company volunteers. The students are among roughly 200 at Ruston High School who were the first to engage with a new curriculum designed by American Forests with support from Weyerhaeuser and Project Learning Tree.
The Weyerhaeuser-funded project is built around American Forests’ Tree Equity Score (treeequityscore.org), a tool that helps gauge which neighborhoods in a community need trees the most. Until now, American Forests has only used the tool to calculate neighborhood scores nationwide for “urbanized areas,” or those with 50,000 people or more. With the support of Weyerhaeuser, the organization will apply the tool to “urban clusters,” areas with populations between 2,500 and 50,000, making the tool more accessible than ever and helping ensure that everyone experiences the health and climate benefits that trees provide no matter their race, income, age or neighborhood.
Original source can be found here.
