This article has been edited since it first appeared in print.
Photo courtesy Reforest Richmond
Reforest Richmond is working toward an ambitious goal: increasing Richmond’s urban tree canopy to 60% by 2037. To get there, the group is relying on a public effort that’s all grassroots.
Founded in 2020, Reforest Richmond is a campaign from the Richmond Tree Committee, an arm of the City Council-created Sustainability and Resilience Commission (formerly the Green City Commission). It began as a small group of volunteers focused on the 2037 goal outlined in the Richmond 300 master plan. Over the years, its marquee Richmond Tree Week distribution event has helped the effort grow into something much bigger.
Every November, Reforest Richmond works with a diverse group of local organizations to identify areas in need of greening and to rally volunteers and sapling donations. Its 2025 event, held Nov. 1-8, was its largest yet; more than 30 groups helped plant over 200 trees and shrubs during the week and donated more than 600 saplings for residents to plant at home.
That’s a significant boost from the year prior, when around 65 trees and shrubs were planted across the city.
“So many agencies, even just within the city, work tirelessly to support our ambitious tree canopy goals,” says Laura Thomas, director of sustainability for the city of Richmond. “Richmond Tree Week helps to bring together so many amazing organizations, community groups and individual Richmonders.”
“To be able to pull it off is really an achievement,” says Matt Szucs, one of the organization’s half-dozen year-round volunteers. “And it’s really all the partners putting in their bit that makes the thing happen.”
One partner is the Greening Bus Stops Alliance, which includes representatives from RVA Rapid Transit, GRTC, Groundwork RVA and the Cool the City Coalition. Volunteers planted trees at two bus stops in the Fairfield neighborhood in the city’s East End — leaving a mere 225 more treeless Richmond bus stops to go.
“It’s not just shade,” Szucs says. “A tree is a wildlife habitat, provides water filtration, it can cool down the spaces around it. There’s so many different benefits to it.”
In addition to putting trees in the ground, Reforest Richmond partners with the Richmond Public Library for tree-related book talks and youth events.
“Not everyone has the means or ability to plant trees, and we expanded the horizons to try to include more people,” Szucs says. It’s just as important to spread education.”
Reforest Richmond’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2025, Tree Week earned the International Society of Arboriculture’s Gold Leaf Award for Outstanding Arbor Day Activities. Despite the recognition, the group is fighting a hard battle against major canopy loss across the city in recent years.
The Chesapeake Tree Canopy Network found that Richmond lost 199 acres of tree cover between 2014 and 2021, reducing the city’s total area of tree coverage from 42% to 32%. The bulk of those losses were on the South Side and far East End, where Reforest Richmond plans to concentrate much of its future efforts.
That work will happen in tandem with a forthcoming Urban Forest Master Plan from the Avula administration. Developed by city Urban Forester Michael Webb with public input, the roadmap is set for implementation by 2027.
“That’s going to be a big moment for the city,” Szucs says.
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