The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative is 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
- or 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, trees 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.
Partner Project Highlights
Here is a sample of the work done by CRTI and its partners across the Chicago region and the state of Illinois.
Orchard Workday at McKinley Park Community Garden
CRTI joined the McKinley Park Community Garden in the fall of 2024 to mulch and water trees in their orchard and to help distribute tree saplings to residents. The orchard at McKinley Park Community Garden was planted in partnership with CRTI in October 2022 and now houses fruit-bearing tree species like persimmon, pawpaw, and serviceberry. It was great to support the garden with their longterm maintenance. Around 20 residents and garden members joined in.
Planting an Orchard in Winnebago Park with Skokie Park District
Skokie Park District began planting trees in a community fruit tree orchard in Winnebago Park adjacent to the park’s popular community garden. The community is invited to harvest food from the park for free, which, with this installation, will now include apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and apricots. The orchard is meant to provide food, shade, habitat, in addition to the many other benefits trees provide and will become a destination for all members of the Skokie community.
Imani Village, Tree Ambassador Program Partner, Inventories 100 Trees
Imani Village, a proud participant of the Tree Ambassador Program since spring 2023, has achieved remarkable milestones: bringing 221 new tree requests to their community and inventorying 100 of those requests. They continue to inspire and empower their community to nurture a greener, more sustainable future.
Friends for a Natural South Chicago, Tree Ambassador Program Partner, Requests 414 Trees
Friends for a Natural South Chicago, who joined the Tree Ambassador Program in spring 2023, has truly gone above and beyond in their efforts to create a greener future. They’ve requested an impressive 414 trees to be planted across their communities and have inventoried 107 trees through the Canopy Counts Program.
Growing Healthy People with a Food Forest
In 2023, middle school students at John R. Lewis Middle School in Waukegan, a city north of Chicago, planted 30 fruit and nut trees donated through CRTI to create a food forest. This unique growing and learning space serves as a hands-on laboratory for more than 225 students every year.
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.
