Why greening a city meant first winning over its jaded residents

Episode transcript

Clayton Collins: Trees. They’re the lungs of the world, coolers of cityscapes, friends to hammock hangers and ... leafy points of contention? 

If you’ve ever had a conversation with a neighbor or a town official about a dangerous overhanging branch, then you know that can be the case. 

So, what about trees as trust-builders? 

[MUSIC]

Collins: The Monitor’s Jingnan Peng heard about a tree-planting program in Louisville, Kentucky. Then he reported and wrote about it. 

I’m Clay Collins. Welcome to “Why We Wrote This.” Jing, who’s also a producer on this show, joins me today to talk about his latest story. This show also includes a lengthy encore excerpt from a 2023 episode about another urban forest phenomenon, Miyawaki forests, which Jing reported on and then spoke about. Welcome back, Jing.

Jingnan Peng: Thank you, Clay. It’s great to be here.

Collins: You’re not quite on an arboreal beat for the Monitor, but in picking your pitches, you’ve tipped your hand lately. You’re into trees! You talk about why in the Miyawaki episode that we’re going to showcase again, as part of this episode. But when you went to Kentucky recently, it was to report a story about community and trust. And trees were part of it. How did the trust focus affect the reporting?

Peng: Really it’s the center of the story. Because the Monitor has an approach to look at the values behind the story. Like dignity, like joy. And also we have stories centered on the value of trust. So actually in my reporting, I sometimes just straight out ask my source: “What are some of the key values that are motivating you? Does trust play a role in your work?” 

In this case, I learned that Louisville has one of the fastest growing urban heat islands in the country. It’s basically when an area has not a lot of trees and a lot of concrete. And they really heat up in the summer. So I connected with a tree planting group in Louisville that works on planting in neighborhoods with low tree canopy. And a lot of these are, you know, low income neighborhoods. 

And I just asked the person who leads the group: “Does trust play a role in your work?” And she said “absolutely.” In various cities, there is sometimes, in lower income communities, a suspicion of city tree-planting initiatives, not just because sometimes residents they already struggle with maintaining trees on their own yard, because of like financial issues, but also there’s a history of the local government’s lack of investment in or neglect of tree care in their community. And sometimes, residents’ input on what kind of trees they want in the community and where they want it – those aren’t taken into account in urban forestry programs. So that has led to a certain distrust of new efforts to plant urban trees.

Collins: Because on the face of it, you know, “It’s hot, trees provide shade, here are trees” sounds like a really good idea. But in people’s minds, it’s sort of: “What’s been the history of deals like this for us?”

Peng: Yeah, and also in Louisville, I talked with a community leader who raised the point of residents being wary of gentrification. Sometimes residents advocate for certain greening initiatives, but will they end up reaping the long-term benefit of that?

Collins: So, “Why are you planting in this neighborhood? Is it because you’re trying to bring a different group of people in here?” 

Peng: Right. So I really try to focus on trust-building. And some of the practices that I believe are common, is to make sure to get residents’ buy-in, obviously when you’re planting on their yard, but also when you’re planting on the easement, which is this strip of soil in front of people’s property. That’s technically city property, but also it’s really right in front of people’s homes. And another common practice is to offer a list of trees that residents can choose from, which in some cities, used to be not the way things are done.

Collins: So a little bit of agency is being given too. Is there a tipping point on trust in Louisville and elsewhere, for instance? What’s the point at which the municipality wins the trust and begins to be able to move forward with this program? 

Peng: So in Louisville, this tree-planting group, TreesLouisville, the director told me that because they’re one of the newer groups, they’ve learned from unsuccessful cases in other cities. For example, in Detroit, there was an effort to plant street trees in areas that are low canopy. And a lot of residents said no. Studies have shown that it’s because of some of these factors that I mentioned that created distrust. So the Louisville program from the outset, the director told me, is to make sure to get residents’ buy-in ahead of time, like put out flyers, communicate early on, like: “This is what we’re planning to do. Here’s a list of trees you can choose from, and here’s how tall they will grow.” Some of these are fruit trees, some of these might be more like, they add beauty to the property, and the residents can pick what they can deal with.

Collins: Yeah. 

Peng: You know, if you plant a tree in front of somebody’s property that they don’t want, they might not be incentivized to take care of it, to water it. And there needs to be sustained care for the tree, for it to reach maturity and provide all the benefits it can provide.

Collins: Yeah. I want to shift into your process on reporting this story. Because you went to Louisville, you reported at least one other story. It was on Western Library, the birthplace of Black librarianship in the United States. You ended up executing a really nice companion video that ended up embedded in the piece and really enhanced the piece. What goes into that part of the assignment process for you, deciding what format is best for the story? 

Peng: So whenever I plan a reporting trip, I ask my sources: “When I’m there, what will you be doing?” And I’m listening for something that might be interesting to capture on camera. So in this case, I was thinking: “Oh, you know, will I be able to maybe capture that process of knocking on doors and sort of see that whole process of trust building. But then I learned that I was not going to be able to see that. The trees would already have been planted at that point. So I just decided to do a story.

Collins: Right. When you reported Miyawaki, that was across the river in Cambridge, in that case, besides being immersive, which you’ve said before is one of the advantages of video, you knew you would be able to go back multiple times and look at the forest in different stages of growing, and you know, we recounted, I think, in that episode, a day when you went over because you heard the insects were starting to proliferate.

So in what ways were these urban forest stories the same or different?

Peng: The Miyawaki forest story is on a tree-planting method. But for this story, you know, it’s about something that is much more widely practiced. We have big challenges in terms of stemming the loss of trees in urban environments. We lose 30 plus million urban trees every year. Louisville or Nashville – I profiled a tree planting group in Nashville too for the story – they have goals of planting hundreds of thousands of trees, and those are ambitious goals. New York City some years ago had this Million Trees NYC project, and they did reach that goal. But in that process, some equity issues came up. They wanted to address the inequitable distribution of tree canopy. But in the end, they did a lot of planting in parks. And parks, they occur more in more affluent neighborhoods, I guess, in New York City. So it didn’t really change the inequity.

Collins: Yeah.

Peng: And also there were issues where, there was an interesting anecdote where, you know, a woman was begging them not to plant a tree because she said her dog would be confused by the introduction of a new smell. But they planted a tree in the easement anyway. One of my sources talks about how, like, if you want to have more speed, then you might sacrifice some of that human touch, and the human touch is what builds trust. And it takes time and effort to talk with residents and get people’s buy-in and educate people on how to care for trees and everything.

Collins: I feel as though in that dog case, that might have been reframed as an opportunity for the dog having a new tree.

Peng: Right!

Collins: Thank you, Jing, for taking us behind the reporting of this story. What follows from this point, as promised, is material from our conversation in September, 2023 about the Miyawaki forest creation over in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So thanks, Jing.

Peng: Thank you, Clay. 

[MUSIC]

Collins:  Urban tree-planting has become an important tool in global efforts to cool heavily built areas while also sequestering carbon. A special kind of pocket forest, the Miyawaki forest, does that and more: promoting native plant species and biodiversity in very dense spaces, and becoming, by design, self-sufficient within two to three years

Jingnan Peng jumped into the Miyawaki story using the video format, one of his favorite means of storytelling. Thanks for coming back over to this side of the studio glass, Jing, to talk about this latest video of yours.

Peng: Thank you so much, Clay. It’s good to be here.

Collins:  So Jing, you often focus on ingenuity and community and on efforts to improve life, especially for marginalized groups. Here, you’re reporting on a young woman’s agency around fighting for nature, for trees. What drew you to this local piece of an international story, the Miyawaki forest story?

Peng: So initially, I wanted to do something about trees. They’re beautiful and they’re calming, and pleasant to look at. And I thought it could be a nice topic for videos. Since I’m in Boston, I just did a Google search: “urban forests, Boston.” And I found this story about the first Miyawaki forest planted in Cambridge in 2021.

What was interesting about the Miyawaki method is that it’s not just planting just any tree. It’s really thinking about what’s the forest ecosystem that existed in a location before there’s a city. And trying to approximate what that native forest ecosystem would have looked like. So it’s really an ecosystem approach.

So I reached out to the group, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, the group that made this project happen. And they were about to plant a second forest. So there’s going to be action. So I’m like: “Great, that’s a good thing for a video.”

Collins:  Right.

Peng: And also, I was really impressed by Maya Dutta. She was the project manager of both forests. She’s younger than I. I felt like she really blossomed from, you know, she started as someone who was really avoidant and fearful of environmental doom. And then she watched this anime film, “Princess Mononoke,” which is about ecological destruction and sort of the two main characters working to protect the forest. And she was just so struck by it that she decided to switch from a software developer to working on the environment. And she eventually found ecological restoration as her path. She says projects like the Miyawaki forest, you really see some of the ecological benefits within a matter of years. It’s tangible benefits that for her provides her a sense of grounded hope.

Also, through this process, she got to work with different groups, and also feel a connection with different types of trees around her. It just seemed like this whole project connected her with the wider world around her in a way that’s really positive and hopeful for her.

Collins:  Yeah, I suspect Maya would really like that you use the term “blossoming” in terms of her coming into this, this project. I saw what you did there. Uh, I remember at one point, during this filming, which took place over a number of months, you enthusiastically telling me that the insects were coming in. You jumped up from your desk and you ran off with your camera. Another time you went back to get drone footage because the first time you’d done that, there were shadows. So how much did it benefit this project, that you were able to shuttle back and forth repeatedly and film it at all these different stages of development?

Peng: It’s super important, because part of the qualities of the Miyawaki forest is [that] it’s designed to grow very fast, and grow to be biodiverse and function as a forest ecosystem. I first went with Maya to the older forest a year after it was planted. And we saw these different types of mushrooms including these giant ones that were like four palms big. That’s a sign of fungal life underground. And now we know that a healthy forest has this whole fungal network underground.

Collins:  Right.

Peng: A few months later, I went with an entomologist. Walked into the forest and captured various types of insects. And I could tell the forest is noticeably taller than when I first went with Maya. But then, two months later, I passed by that forest one night in August. It took me a second to realize it’s the same forest.

Collins:  Wow.

Peng: Because it’s so much taller. And you can’t walk into it anymore, it’s so dense. So we did the drone shoots. And those visuals really helped tell the story.

Collins:  Very cool. And it was almost a time-lapse effect. It was growing so fast, uh, when you went back. Another key element of this story, and it comes through in the video, is the way in which these little neighborhood forests foster community, the one in Cambridge in particular. Did it surprise you how much of a community effort this was given how specialized the work is?

Peng: It is pretty impressive. Both forests were largely planted by community members. And that’s a lot of trees. You know, the first forest was 1,400 trees planted by about 100 people. The second forest, you know, 900 trees planted by about, I think, 50 people. The steps before planting, like selecting the species, prepping the soil – those were done by specialists. But when it comes to planting, actually, one of the hallmarks, Maya told me, is to involve locals, so people can learn about ecological restoration.

Collins:  Right.

Peng: Maya’s group, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, they spread the word before planting day. And on planting day there were lots of people who were just passing by and were curious. And so Maya told them what it is, taught them how to plant a tree. And they ended up planting their own trees. There was a lot of energy and joy around. And I sort of alternated between filming and planting. I actually planted a few trees myself. It was also good to just do it yourself to get a sense of how it feels and that, I think, informed a little bit of my filming.

Collins:  Sure, yeah. You know, when you were on the show in January, you described to our former colleague, Sam, that immersive nature of video [for viewers]. This one became immersive for you, too. Really, a long term project and a labor of love. How did you know when you had enough to tell the story visually, and also what do you hope viewers will take away?

Peng: So, before I go on a shoot, I’ve done some pre interviews, so I have a sense of, you know, what are the points that a video is trying to make. And then I write out a list of shots that I anticipate might happen that will convey those ideas. And during the shoot, I try to, you know, keep that list in my mind and get those shots. But there’s lot of things you can’t predict. The actual environment, the actual people who are there. So I just try to be on the lookout for anything that looks surprising and interesting.

The coolest moments you can’t plan. There was this little girl who was planting one of the trees. And she said, “Welcome home!” You know, so it was like a nice, sweet moment.

Collins:  Aw. That is nice.

Peng: I hope viewers will experience the beauty of the plants and learn about the Miyawaki method. I hope they’ll like Maya’s story, which, as I said, is a story of going from avoiding a problem to tackling it face on. So yeah, I hope viewers will really like her story.

Collins:  That’s great. Well, thank you, Jing. Good things happen when you do your storytelling from behind a camera. And, um, so great you were able to do this one by subway.

Peng: Thank you so much. That was great.

Collins: And thank you for listening. You can find more, including our show notes, with a link to the story that we discussed in this podcast, and to some of Jing’s other multimedia work, including serial narrative podcasts, at csmonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Jing. Mackenzie Farkas is also a producer on this program. Our sound engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton, with original music by Noel Flatt, produced by The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright 2024.