Tree Trust: 50 Years of Growing Careers Alongside Urban Canopies

ST. PAUL, MN – June 03, 2026 – As Tree Trust prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Twin Cities-based nonprofit stands as a testament to a remarkably prescient idea: that you can rebuild an ecosystem and a community’s workforce simultaneously. Founded in 1976, the organization has spent five decades transforming both lives and landscapes, a dual mission that has evolved from a crisis response into a sophisticated model for sustainable urban development. This September, a community celebration will mark this milestone, but the real story lies in the 55,000 individuals trained and the thousands of trees that now define the region’s canopy.

“Fifty years is a remarkable milestone, and it belongs to every person who has ever planted a tree with us, trained through our programs, or partnered in our mission,” stated Tree Trust's Board Chair, Michael Huntington. “This anniversary is a celebration of what we’ve built together — and a call to action for the next chapter.”

A Legacy Rooted in Crisis

Tree Trust was born not from a strategic plan, but from an ecological catastrophe. In the mid-1970s, Dutch elm disease was systematically erasing the iconic tree-lined streets of the Twin Cities. In response, the organization’s founders mobilized an underutilized resource—local youth—to combat the devastation. By the summer of 1977, a staggering 1,400 young people were employed, planting and nurturing replacement trees while earning a paycheck and tangible skills. It was a powerful, practical synergy from day one.

This foundational model of pairing environmental work with human development quickly proved adaptable. In 1978, a youth crew built the state’s first floating boardwalk at Westwood Hills Nature Center, forging a partnership that remains active today. By 1983, the mission expanded to serve unemployed adults, recognizing that economic hardship was a challenge that transcended age. The 1990s saw further innovation with the launch of the Community Forestry program, which invited residents to become active stewards of their own neighborhoods, and the Ramps Program, which applied the organization's construction skills to build no-cost accessibility ramps for homeowners with mobility challenges.

Cultivating Green Careers and Human Potential

Today, Tree Trust’s workforce development efforts are formalized under its Career Pathways division, a sophisticated pipeline designed to guide young people toward in-demand green and skilled trade careers. Programs like YouthBuild and Branches offer more than just a job; they provide paid training, industry-recognized credentials, and the kind of mentorship that changes life trajectories. For many participants, it is their first exposure to a viable career they never knew existed.

One graduate of the YouthBuild program, who partnered with a local technical high school, found his calling through hands-on work clearing invasive plants and learning construction skills. Now an apprentice glazier, he credits the program with providing critical direction. “Don’t be scared to try new things,” he advises. “You never know what you're going to like or enjoy the most.” His experience is a common refrain among alumni.

A young woman who joined the Branches program with no background in tree care is now a full-time employee at a major national firm, training to be a climbing arborist. As a Black woman entering a field she initially found intimidating, she said the program empowered her and “opened my eyes to a career I never knew existed.” Another participant, who came to the U.S. from a refugee camp, earned his high school diploma through the program, gaining certifications to operate chainsaws and skid steers. He said that without the program, he likely would have dropped out of school, crediting it with building his confidence for job interviews and social interactions.

These stories underscore the depth of the organization's impact. It’s not merely about job placement; it’s about building what one participant called “a sense of responsibility” and realizing, as another put it, that he was “capable of achieving much more than he initially believed.”

An Innovative Model for Sustainable Growth

What truly sets Tree Trust apart in the nonprofit landscape is its financial architecture. In 2004, the organization launched Tree Trust Landscape Services, a social enterprise that provides professional tree care, landscaping, and construction services on a commercial basis. This division operates as a business, generating revenue that is then funneled back to support the nonprofit’s mission-driven programs.

This model provides a crucial layer of financial resilience. In 2024, Tree Trust reported over $9.4 million in total revenue, with more than $5.3 million of that generated from program services, a figure that includes the earned income from its social enterprise. This structure reduces reliance on traditional philanthropic grants and donations, creating a sustainable funding loop where the act of doing business directly fuels the organization's charitable work. The Landscape Services division also serves as a critical training ground, offering a registered arborist apprenticeship approved by the state, creating a debt-free pathway into a high-demand career.

Branching Out: The Next 50 Years

As it looks to the future, Tree Trust is focusing its efforts on the converging challenges of climate change and economic inequality. Its “Growing Resilient Green Futures” campaign is a strategic initiative designed to plant climate-resilient trees in underserved neighborhoods, build community stewardship, and invest in urban forestry innovation. This year alone, the campaign aims to add 8,500 trees to the region’s canopy.

This forward-looking work is already in action. A partnership with the City of Saint Paul is tackling the new ecological threat of the emerald ash borer, deploying youth crews to plant thousands of diverse, resilient trees. These efforts not only restore the urban forest but also provide young people with industry credentials and a direct role in protecting their own communities. Through collaborations with municipalities from Minneapolis to Rochester and corporate partners like Delta Air Lines and U.S. Bank, Tree Trust is scaling its model of shared environmental and economic renewal.

From its roots in the Dutch elm crisis to its modern focus on climate resilience and green careers, Tree Trust has proven that planting a tree can be an investment in both a healthier planet and a more equitable workforce. Its 50-year legacy is not just written in the rings of the trees it has planted, but in the thousands of lives that have found new direction among their branches.