Implementing municipal tree planting: Los Angeles Million-Tree Initiative

The objective of this study was to examine the implementation of a large-scale biogenic infrastructure project using the LA Million-Tree Initiative as a case study. Critical realist philosophy provided the framework for the investigation. Interviews with key actors, attendance at meetings and hearings, and official and unofficial texts and newspaper articles were used to explore the topic. The Results section provides extensive detail about the history, process, partners, organization, and funding of the Million-Tree Initiative, and serves as a valuable overview. The author describes the main finding as the complicated nature of a project this ambitious: multiple funding sources were necessary and will be needed into the future to care for the trees, many organizations were involved and partnerships were sometimes resisted, acceptance of trees and existing tree canopy cover differed across neighborhoods, and procuring quality stock for one million trees from nurseries was a challenge.