Please note: Acorn Express Tram Tours are currently unavailable due to maintenance repairs
The Morton Arboretum Get tickets
Chicago Region Trees Initiative

Partners of the Chicago Region Trees Initiative

Content Detail

The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative collaborates with a network of partners, including community, civic, nonprofit, and green industry organizations and businesses.

CRTI has engaged more than 500 partners throughout Illinois, including municipalities, businesses, nonprofit organizations, forest preserves, park districts, private landowners and managers, and other stakeholders. Through these collaborations, CRTI works to inspire tree stewards and build municipal capacity and support for trees, with a focus on environmental equity and disadvantaged communities.

The Chicago Region Trees Initiative and its partners have developed a comprehensive plan to improve the health, diversity, and equitable distribution of the Chicago regional forest. Together, guided by this plan, CRTI and its partners have had a regionwide impact.

CRTI’s collaborations and the possibilities for partnership are wide-ranging. For example, partners may work with CRTI to:

  • Organize community tree plantings
  • Develop new tree protection ordinances
  • Conserve and celebrate oak trees in natural areas and neighborhoods
  • Improve municipalities’ tree-care capacity through staff training, volunteer development, and tree inventories
  • Find funding for community tree care
  • Plan to mitigate the impacts of climate change

Partners who come together in CRTI’s work groups connect with peers, share ideas, and contribute to the program’s planning on topics such as forest composition, tree and green infrastructure, tree risk assessment and management, and tree stewardship and planting.

CRTI welcomes new collaborators! Learn how you or your organization can become a partner of CRTI.

Next

Partner Project Highlights

Partner Project Highlights

Partner Project Highlights

Here is a sample of the work done by CRTI and its partners across the Chicago region and Illinois.

 

CRTI Tree Walk with Stone Temple Baptist Church

CRTI had the pleasure of hosting a tree walk with Stone Temple Baptist Church in their neighborhood of North Lawndale. The walk focused on tree identification and the evolutionary traits of trees, as well as highlighting the benefits of specific tree species in densely populated urban areas, such as flood mitigation and how mature trees can save residents heating and cooling costs over time.

CRTI would like to thank the tree ambassadors at Stone Temple Baptist Church for their hard work and for continuing to advocate for trees in their community. The tree walk was a great example of community engagement around trees, collaborative education, and sharing resources.

 

Joint Work Day with the Illinois Medical District

On July 30, CRTI hosted a joint tree workday with the Illinois Medical District to care for more than 30 trees that were planted at the IMD campus back in 2022 for The Morton Arboretum’s Centennial Tree Planting Initiative.

IMD employees, student volunteers, GreenCorps, and Student Conservation Association helped correct volcano mulch, add new mulch rings, and water the young trees. This work aided in continuing community partnerships and provided oversight of previously planted trees to ensure their health and survival.

 

Out Our Front Door’s Visit to the Gateway to Tree Science

CRTI hosted the nonprofit organization Out Our Front Door at The Morton Arboretum for the third year in a row. The group biked out to Lisle from Oak Park then took a tour around the Visitor Center and through the Arboretum’s Gateway for Tree Science exhibition. The group finished their day by biking along the East Side’s main route.

The group learned about the challenges faced by urban trees by visiting the Gateway for Tree Science exhibition and enjoyed their visit to The Morton Arboretum.

Next

Become a Partner

Become a Partner

The Morton Arboretum welcomes everyone working to improve the health and the equitable distribution of the tree canopy in the Chicago region to become a partner of its Chicago Region Trees Initiative.

CRTI asks its partners to support its efforts for people and trees in at least one of these ways:

  • Committing to activities that can have a positive impact on the region’s trees and help meet regional goals.
  • Investing staff time or other resources to help achieve the goals outlined in the 2050 Master Plan for Trees.
  • Participating as an active member of a CRTI work group.

Fill out this form to become a CRTI partner and commit to actions that will ensure that trees are healthier, more abundant, more diverse, and more equitably distributed to provide needed benefits to all people and communities in the Chicago region.

There is no fee associated with partnership, though donations and sponsorships are welcome.