As a part of the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC), a city-wide effort to create a more inclusive and healthy community, we train South Stockton community members to provide them with pathways to urban greening and conservation careers. The goal of the Urban Forestry Training Program is to increase the number of underrepresented foresters and conservation workers through mentorship and curricula, experience in the field, and create pipelines that connect our Urban Greening Team with prospective employers. 

TCC and Little Manila Rising

Little Manila Rising’s Urban Forestry Program is supported by California Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities Program with funds from California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities. Our role in this process is to engage the community and develop land stewards through our Community Foresters and My Free Tree Stewards. The Urban Forestry Training Program is a paid (stipend) training, which prepares youth and adults who are from the community and ready to get their hands dirty for careers in urban greening and conservation work. On January 17, 2022, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we launched the program with our very first community tree planting event. On March 25, 2022, we began orientation for Stockton’s very first Urban Forestry Training Program. Lastly, the summer of 2022 we sent out mailers to residents for free trees in hopes of creating a My Free Tree steward community among residents.  

In the coming months, Community Foresters and My Free Tree Resident Stewards will continue to learn about trees and ensure Stockton’s forest is well maintained. Follow our @GreenliningTheHood IG and Facebook page for updates on upcoming events, workshops, resources, and a chance to catch your friendly neighborhood community forester!  

Strategic Growth Council

You can also learn more about TCC Projects in Stockton at the City of Stockton’s website

Explore the Coast : Delta to the Sea
Stockton is an urban environment where we don't often have good access to green space and the healing benefits that time in nature can bring. We aim to improve our local green spaces through beautification and tree planting and to try to create more access to our nature spaces in Stockton such as the Delta.

Through Explore the Coast Delta to the Sea, Little Manila Rising is arranging trips for residents (primarily youth and program participants) to experience and develop a connection to the natural environment and the ocean thanks to the support of the Coastal Conservancy. The Coastal Conservancy is a California state agency, established in 1976, to protect and improve natural lands and waterways, to help people get to and enjoy the outdoors, and to sustain local economies along California’s coast. It acts with others to protect and restore, and increase public access to, California’s coast, ocean, coastal watersheds, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Its vision is of a beautiful, restored, and accessible coast for current and future generations of Californians.