More Trees = Better Environment

Step out around your community and look up, see those trees? Trees make a difference. As Benita Hussian of American Forests will tell you, trees improve neighborhoods, health and well they just make life better.

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Transcription

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Benita Hussain: American Forests is the oldest conservation organization in the US. We are 150 years old, and as the name entails, we believe that forests and trees are really critical parts of building healthy communities, both in larger landscapes as well as the urban environment.

We think about trees as being critical infrastructure, and they are, because we know that areas that do have trees within cities can be 20 degrees cooler than areas without trees.

Good government utilizes truthful data to respond to existing challenges and their cities, and respond to the needs of their communities and. We are in a moment in time for us to be rethinking what it means for us to govern, what it means for us to serve residents.

David Martin: On today’s show, we’re going to talk a lot about trees. Here’s a fun fact I didn’t know trees can make a neighborhood as much as 20 degrees cooler. Coming up Benita Hussain of American Forest is going to tell us how trees can make a big impact on cities and communities everywhere. Welcome to the good Government show. I’m Dave Martin.

First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and showing us where we are. On Facebook, x YouTube, Instagram and blue Sky. Please share a show with your friends or viewers where you’re listening and join our good Government show community. Check out our website for the link. Earlier this summer, I attended the Conference of Mayors annual event in Tampa.

I sat in on a session called Climate Resiliency and Community Engagement. Benita was on the panel and trees were a major topic of discussion. She’s the chief program officer for a project called Tree and Equity for the nonprofit organization American Forests. On future shows, you’ll hear from mayors in West Hollywood, where palm trees are a huge issue. Just listen.

And mayors from Tucson, Boise and Columbus, Missouri. We have a lot of tree conversation coming up, but I wanted to start with Benita, who sang in American for us to get a good overview of how trees make a difference. Here’s a few quick highlights before we get into the conversation. When Benita thinks of trees, she thinks of them as infrastructure, as important as sidewalks and bridges.

So think about that for a minute. American Forest calls it treat inequity. That means some neighborhoods have more trees and others. Imagine your favorite neighborhoods. I bet there are trees there lining the streets, casting shade and just looking pretty. Trees provide neighborhoods with cooler temperatures, better air quality, and even lower crime. She says by identifying neighborhoods with less trees, they know where to focus to improve them with more trees.

While in this conversation we focus a lot on trees and cities, American Forest does a lot more. They were founded in 1875. They helped create the U.S. Forest Service National parks after Civilian Conservation Corps and Arbor Day. In the past 30 years, they planted more than 65 million trees. So get ready to hear all about trees. Yep. Simple trees, but they make a huge difference.

My conversation with Benita Hussain of American Forest is coming up after this. The Good Government Show is sponsored by our. That’s o u r for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders. Our co-branded with your governments name and logo. Your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community.

From any device your members provide reliable data and meaningful feedback. Ask a question like do we want more parkland or better homeless services? More engage. Conversations come through the our app. Visit our co that’s ou rco.com and book a demonstration. It was called the War to End all Wars but it didn’t. Three royal cousins, all kings, one from England, one from Germany and one from Russia blundered their way into a war, a completely avoidable war that left millions dead in the trenches across Europe.

Good government show executive producer Jim Ludlow details the blunders, mistakes and bluster that started World War One that didn’t end all wars. The book The Royal Cousins details the events and creates an alternative history. Imagine a World War one never happened. It didn’t have to. Just read it yourself. Download the book today on Amazon. It’s just $0.99 and a timely look at the history.

On this episode of The Good Government Show, I have Benita Hussain, who’s not in government but does very good work supporting government and planting trees with American forest. So welcome to the show.

Benita Hussain: Thank you. And I should mention that I used to work for government, so I have a lot of experience with that. Yes.

David Martin: You got out.

Benita Hussain: Yeah, I did get out, but I. I enjoy helping cities. And so the work I do now is really about supporting cities just from a different angle.

David Martin: So you run an organization called American Forest. What is American Forest?

Benita Hussain: American Forest is the oldest conservation organization in the US. We are 150 years old and as the name entails, we believe that force and trees are really critical parts of building healthy communities, both in larger landscapes as well as the urban environment. So my work is to really focus on that urban side. How do we ensure that those who do not have the benefits of trees receive them from from our work?

David Martin: And it turns out we are almost neighbors in Brooklyn. That’s right. Okay. And so I had a tree in front of my house. The city put it in it. They put another one in. It died. They put another one in it died. Now I just have a blank piece of dirt in front of my house. Is my experience typical?

Benita Hussain: You know, I think that you have one specific experience living in the city of New York. But our work is really about looking at how cities across the country truly need this critical infrastructure. And so we think about trees as being critical infrastructure. And they are, because we know that areas that do have trees within cities can be 20 degrees cooler than areas without trees.

And if you think about that, and we think about the fact that trees are living, breathing infrastructure, we need to be investing dollars into maintaining and protecting those trees in ways that all the community benefits. So what you’re experiencing is one of those bad luck, bad luck. But we also just know that when taken as a whole, as a system, urban forests are actually very critical for for lives.

David Martin: So you said something interesting I wanted to pick up on. Trees are infrastructure. Yes. Yes. I did not think of them that way.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. We. Yeah, we we feel that trees are, as important as sidewalks and sewers. Essentially, when you look at the entire built environment and there’s so much more information now that tells us the built environment has actual impacts on people’s health and well-being, their their civic pride, the ways that they engage with their community. Trees are at the center of that.

And so, you know, and even in the current climate of us looking at, climate change and flooding and extreme heat, trees have the ability to clean and cool our cities in ways that are actually vital at this moment in time.

David Martin: Well, which leads me to my next question. What do trees do?

Benita Hussain: Trees have a myriad of benefits for the urban landscape. It straddles everything from, again, addressing extreme heat. As I mentioned, neighborhoods with trees can be 20 degrees cooler.

David Martin: So that’s 20 degrees is a very significant, change.

Benita Hussain: Absolutely. Yeah.

David Martin: How does that work? What does that I mean, I’m not a scientist, are you?

Benita Hussain: I’m not, but I work with trees quite a bit. Okay. Basically, trees are, they have shade elements, right? They also have evapotranspiration, which is basically trees sweating water into the air. And all those two things combine, especially when they’re part of a healthy tree canopy connected forests or connected neighborhood with trees. You feel different. You feel that difference.

And so, and I think any of us on a hot day can walk outside and not in a gray, concrete jungle. I know the difference between that and walking through a park. And one of the one of the main thrust of our work in American forests is that while we know trees are important for cities, we also know that many, many people within cities do not have those benefits, and those are typically across socioeconomic lines.

And so what we see is true tree inequity in cities. And our work is really to help invest more of those trees into those places that do not have those benefits. And just in terms of other benefits, we know that they help cleanse the air. So some cities are investing in trees to address respiratory disease, and other places that where they’re investing in trees in order to fight community violence.

Right. Trees beautify communities. They cool. But communities and those things combined make people have mental health, improvements. And that actually has actual impacts on their violence.

David Martin: I have thought more about trees today that I probably thought about trees in my life. Is it hard when you look at this across the nation in cities, across the nation, to convince mayors and city council people that trees are infrastructure and that there is such a thing? I never heard I never heard the phrase tree inequity before.

I mean, is this a hard sell?

Benita Hussain: No. Well, in the last five years, American Forest being in the in the lead of this, we named this issue of tree inequity through a data tool that we call Tree Equity Score and maps 2600 metro areas across the country against the socioeconomic lines of tree canopy. And what we are able to say, and this forms a foundation for our advocacy, is that communities of color tend to have, 38% less tree cover and are 13 degrees hotter.

And lower income communities have 26% less tree cover, our six degrees hotter, our buildings.

David Martin: That.

Benita Hussain: Well, that has historical disinvestment and and, you know, racist policies such as redlining have created. Yeah. I mean truly have created, have changed the way cities were.

David Martin: Put right there, though.

Benita Hussain: Have truly changed the ways trees have, cities have been invested in and planned. And some people reap those benefits and some don’t. And so that data allows us, has allowed us to work with federal policymakers, state policymakers and city government on saying the data is here. Let’s extrapolate this data to what it looks like at the local level, and you will see the stark difference and heat and social disparity.

And that has been, actually the game changer for this entire movement. And, you know, in 2000, 23, when the I.R.A. passed, we are to in 2022, excuse me. When the Inflation Reduction Act passed, we were able to get $1.5 billion into the USDA package just for urban forestry. Based on that data.

David Martin: We’re going to talk about some neighborhoods that you and I know that most people don’t. You look at places like Brownsville or East New York, which are some of the harder, rougher, poorer neighborhoods in Brooklyn. What can you do there? And are they able to have trees planted there?

Benita Hussain: Yeah. So you know that tree Equity score tool, if you were to do that overlay. Right. Of of income with trees, you will absolutely see where the trees are and are not. And so places like, the nice areas like Park Slope for green, areas and Carroll Gardens, those are very high tree equity scores because we have a lot of trees and a lot of affluent areas like, Brownsville.

And actually this is true across the country, that.

David Martin: Area, you know, those places.

Benita Hussain: Yeah, sure. But the areas that don’t have trees are often the ones that are have more gray infrastructure, have more, impermeable spaces, require far more investment and capital projects to break down sidewalks and get trees in there and then maintain them for the long term. So I would say there are about 2 or 3 things you really need.

One is you need money, you need funding. And that’s what the IRA offered was every year you’ve got 500 cities, some cut of that 1.5 billion allowed cities to look at these as capital improvements and to change the ways that our cities were built and planted. You also need community bias. These are.

David Martin: Big. These are big issues.

Benita Hussain: Yes.

David Martin: They are coming up with the money and changing the way they think. How are you successful at doing them?

Benita Hussain: Well, changing the way I think so often. So again, I did, you know, mayors across the country. And I want to say that mayors and governors, local leaders, they care about the well-being of their communities. This is one of the best things about working with mayors, right? Is that they they are look at a day to day basis of how their residents are doing.

nd so if you say to them, your communities actually like trees and you’re having actual impacts on heat and death and disease, they care about that and that. So that argument isn’t hard. What we need to understand is how do we make trees as part of the full package of priorities the city has? Right? That could be anything from homelessness and affordable housing and all things.

But we want to say that trees should be part of the fabric of the city’s well-being. And that’s why we say that it’s critical infrastructure. So I don’t think the argument is super hard for local leaders. I think the importance of keeping trees alive planted and alive in the long term. And so they’re not facing things like you’re facing in your own neighborhood is is a challenge and is one that requires us.

And that’s why we really need the community’s buy in. So I think as the other piece that we need, including funding, is the ability for communities to come to the table and say, we do actually want this here, and we promise not to cut down the trees when you put them in. And so that’s that sort of coalition building at the local level has been municipal government as well as community groups coming together and saying, this is the way that we want to rethink about our cities.

David Martin: And what kind of trees are you planting?

Benita Hussain: You know, it just depends, right? We our work has been is very science driven. So when we work with local communities, we look at certainly what the native trees are. We take an inventory, we help take an inventory of, the current, the current, stock. And then also think about the changing environment in an ideal state, we’re actually looking at the ways that cities are changing, from, in terms of climate, in terms of, weather.

And we are helping recommend the types of species that work for that newest, that new environment in that specific geography. So the best thing we can do is hope that we’re selecting site specific trees. You know, we’re not going to take, you know, tropical trees and drop them into new New England because that wouldn’t be appropriate.

We we do need to work with local government on what the right inventory and science is. There.

David Martin: And is there any kind of move to, plant the trees that were native to that region maybe 100 years ago or 200 years ago, or how does that work?

Benita Hussain: Yeah, certainly. I mean, it just depends on the city. And again, what’s the what is appropriate and what is cost effective and what is going to last in the long term. And those are all parts of the calculus for a city to come up to come to the table. Right. Do you have tree farms? Yes. So a lot of our, some of our growing body of work is helping communities develop nurseries and or help them source the appropriate trees from nurseries around the country.

And I will say that one of our other challenges is a seed stocks. And number three, there’s a third thing that we need really is the funding. We need the community buy it. And we need I mean need the supply. And that supply is going to come from, local businesses, local job trainees, those that we want and scientists in these areas that can help us identify where the seeds are and how to cultivate them.

For those in urban environments.

David Martin: Do you have a staff of scientists and arborists, you know, on that are a part of, American for us?

Benita Hussain: We do. I mean, we have, a cabal of experts that I like to that we served, we deploy into the field. We we deploy them to help work with cities that have demonstrated interest and motivation to do this work with us. We have over 100 cities that we are directly engaged with. And that is, overlaps also with the 500 cities that did receive that inflation reduction money.

And so there’s just a huge amount of momentum around this.

David Martin: Just walk me through a little bit about how American Forest works with the city. I mean, how does it start? How how do you how do you get to, you know, tree canopy.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. So everything, you know, it starts we we like to see the cities often. We choose our own adventure. So there are some mayors that have seen the impacts of not having trees in their communities, and they know they need them. So places like Phoenix, with, Mayor Gallego, she, she worked with us saying the city of Phoenix is grappling with extreme heat and why residents can’t walk to work safely.

They can’t. The kids can’t get to school safely. How do I make sure that we start to get more trees in the right places? So she actually made a commitment at the highest level at the mayor level, saying, I want tree equity in all of my cities in the coming decades.

David Martin: She used the phrase you coined good.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. And she used a tree equity word. And so we so that’s that was one intervention. Right. So she and then then she’s able to pull us our experts in and help her with all that science and planting and other forms of, need that the city might need. Others have been did receive some of that 1.5 billion.

And so they now have catalytic money, startup money for doing this type of work. And they then they reach out to us and go, we have this new money. We want to implement these dollars. How do we do it in the best way possible. And so our team is able to be deployed to help them with their best practices around tree care and nursery development, and planting and policy making.

David Martin: So you send out that cabal.

Benita Hussain: Yeah, this or it’s our cabal of experts, and then the others are just kind of basically coming to things like this at the U.S. Conference of Mayors or just one of our prime events, for us to approach cities and say, you know, if you’re thinking about climate change, ever thinking about public health, if you’re thinking about respiratory health, how do we, as tree people help support those priorities for you?

And then we there’s often, sort of that type of dialog that allows us to help them reset their priorities or help them, integrate trees into into those plans.

David Martin: And American Forest is working with, I think you said 100 cities across the United States.

Benita Hussain: Yeah.

David Martin: In some level of planting trees.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. So some level of work. So is either planting trees or sometimes it’s workforce development programs that they are really interested in building a pipeline of urban foresters. And sometimes it’s actually just straight policymaking or new financing tools that they can use to get more trees in the ground and protect them. So it’s all sorts of interventions that we offer.

David Martin: So I, I recently have learned that there is a palm tree problem in Los Angeles. I’m going to get into this a little bit more with another mayor. But briefly, my understanding is the palm trees are not native Southern California now. They are a huge problem and they are all dying. And there’s a great debate whether they should replace with palm trees or more native trees.

Are you involved in this issue at all?

Benita Hussain: We witness this issue quite a bit, so we work quite a bit with the southwest. And that’s also an issue in, Arizona. And different. And then we see that issue certainly in the southeast. And we our take is that those are not be appropriate trees for these environments. They take up a lot. They require a lot of care, a lot of water in places that are water scarce.

We need to be looking at what are they? And they’re also not trees, by the way. They’re grasses, okay. They’re actually grass. And so the benefit.

David Martin: Be coming to Arbor.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean my team tells me this all the time. They’ve really, you know, they, they’ve they’ve underscore this. So when we think.

David Martin: Of trees are not trees.

Benita Hussain: Palm trees are not trees. They’re grass okay. And so so when you think about trees and the benefits of they offer carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration, the ability to connect into systems of of urban greening, palm trees don’t do that. And so when we were talking about how we build, tree equity, we need to be looking at, again, the types of trees and appropriate types of trees.

David Martin: But they’re pretty.

Benita Hussain: They are pretty. They are pretty. But I think we’ve all learned.

David Martin: A half of the cities like logos are true. Yeah. Yeah. Especially LA County.

Benita Hussain: You know, we’re in a moment in time for us to be rethinking what it means for us to govern, what it means for us to serve residents, what it means for us to address climate change and the many, many other challenges around that. And if it requires us to rethink palm trees, I think we should try.

David Martin: Okay.

Benita Hussain: You should.

David Martin: Just try. That’s all I ask. Well fascinating stuff. I you know, I, like I said, I saw it. What about trees today? At the Conference of Mayors, since I saw the discussion where you had, you had some 20 mayors sitting around the table talking about trees they planted in their city. Yes. That must make you feel better.

Benita Hussain: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s a lot of hard work by a lot of people and including I do not want to take, you know, understate this. The community advocacy, the grassroots work that happens in all of these cities are critical. So when we are able to, you know, arm community advocacy, frontline organizations with that data tool I was talking about, or engage them in the tree planting or engage their use in understanding why urban greening matters, that is very, very powerful.

And they have been doing that work for much longer than, any, you know, been today. And so we want to uplift those voices as well.

David Martin: How many trees have you planted this year and how many cities? Over the course of American forest life.

Benita Hussain: Over the you know, it’s hard to estimate that. Well, I will say that our work to unlock that 1.5 billion allowed us to measure that 2.1 million trees would be planted through those dollars, and that is a significant number. And that’s just 2.1 million being planted and an extraordinary number that we also need to protect and maintain.

David Martin: All right. Well, we have now, completed the easy part of the discussion. We are going to get into the hard part of the discussion.

Benita Hussain: That was the hard part.

David Martin: That was the easy part. That was the easy part. So coming up is the hard part. You’re going to get to your true thoughts on government. Once you wrap up this episode of The Good Government Show, give a listen to our friends over at Good News for lefties. This daily podcast highlights news stories that show there’s more good news out there.

Other people in government are really trying to do the right thing. That’s good news for lefties. Listen, we’re listening now. After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors. Kasim Reid of Atlanta and Michael Nutter, a Seattle delphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation.

Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen. Dot org slash podcasts. All right. You said you worked in government. What did you do? Where were you?

Benita Hussain: I’ve worked for a number of different mayors, so I worked for the mayor of Boston, Mayor Menino.

David Martin: Okay.

Benita Hussain: I worked for Mayor Walsh’s successor for a little bit of time. And then I also worked with Mike Bloomberg at his philanthropy, following those, those my time with the Boston mayors. And I’ve also worked in affordable housing early in my career for the city of New York.

David Martin: All right. Well, that was certainly a challenge. So you’re well familiar with many of the houses? Yeah. All right. Well, this is a good government show questionnaire to find good governance.

Benita Hussain: Good government utilizes truthful data to respond to existing challenges and their cities and respond to the needs of their communities.

David Martin: That’s like a lot of things I’m sure.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. That’s why governing is hard, right? Yes. Because you need to because and I think mayors face at all time and mayors being the ones who I close to some work with, I consider them almost CEOs of cities and they have a lot of different demands, and a lot of different voices. And they are responsible for executing, and using different forms of tools to, to get things done.

David Martin: If people look out their window and they hear this show and they go, we should have more trees, what should they do?

Benita Hussain: They should do a few things. They should call their local government to see what the tree programs are, because often that’s actually what is missing is that that information sharing from government or from tree advocates and nonprofits, and they can see that often they have the ability to get trees for free. So first they find out their free tree programs.

And if they’re not, there’s the opportunity to advocate for those as well.

David Martin: Just start making calls.

Benita Hussain: Yes, absolutely. Because as I said, right. Governing as part of it is, you know, responding to responding to your constituents in some ways.

David Martin: What drew you into public service and then what drew you into trees?

Benita Hussain: So I grew up in the city of New York, and I just love cities in particular. I love the urban landscape. I love the dynamic energy. I love seeing different types of people living in the same spaces. And I just, I think just being around people always made me understand that I’m connected to people and that whatever we do, we can’t disconnect ourselves from society and communities.

So I think it’s that lived experience alongside the fact that, my family, my parents were immigrants. And so it’s a similar idea. It’s like you are always connected to each other. Okay. And so, yeah, I just couldn’t imagine living a life where I wasn’t doing some sort of public service. And then I worked in affordable housing, and from there I moved into environmental work, for, you know, after I went to law school and I, continue down this environmental path as an advisor to these students, several mayors.

And what was I loved about working on trees from that? I was working on climate change and urban sustainability. But what I love about trees was that it was tangible. And I think one of the hardest things about working in climate and environment is how intangible it can feel for people. But trees and parks and green space, you could see a direct benefit in communities and people could say, yeah, if I have that, I’m going to.

I know it’s good for.

David Martin: Me to ever walk around places like the city of Phoenix. Yeah, I did that.

Benita Hussain: Those are trees. Yeah, yeah, we do that. We in Boston, we do that. You know, we have a lot of community partners that do those tree plantings. And again, I want to give them full credit for for the ones that do that.

David Martin: Who inspires.

Benita Hussain: You? At this moment in my life, I think my husband inspires me. Okay. Yeah. He works in, food and ag, and food equity. I, you know, I work in tree equity. So we both have similar kind of commitments to public service, and we are, we drive each other forward.

David Martin: You said you started off working for the city of New York. Did you always envision a career in public service or in in government?

Benita Hussain: I always knew that I wanted to do something bigger and something that would improve people’s lives, and I was immediately interested in environmental justice and the built environment always. And so housing and affordable housing always seem like a very important part of that mix.

David Martin: Were you president of your high school class?

Benita Hussain: No.

David Martin: Oh, you seem a little better.

Benita Hussain: I’m sorry. Oh, no. No, I. Yeah. Governing is hard.

David Martin: Yes. You worked in government and now you work with government. Now you assist government to help them improve. What would you like people to know about government.

Benita Hussain: That is super important. And I think that in this current time of shifting sands, when we when we have federal leaders who are trying to dismantle government, I think it’s actually very it’s a very regressive look at how how to build efficiencies. I mean, I, I, I’m, I don’t mean to be even coded by me government and regulations and the ways we govern are all very, very important part of society.

And it always needs to be improved, of course, with time and changing times. But the, the dismantling of our government infrastructure is very worrisome.

David Martin: What can you do about it?

Benita Hussain: I think it’s important for us just to keep on doing the work, being here and being around folks that are still doing the work and getting nightmares or the lights are never off for mayors right there constantly. And so to be in a room with folks are still moving forward and be like, we are still taking care of our cities.

And we are not shying away from the truth. And we’re still talking about real science. And data is very invigorating. So I think it’s important just to keep connected to that, like that. Hope is there. And I think it’s really important for institutions, to start to rally in order to make sure that we can still survive this, this time.

David Martin: What’s the best part of your job?

Benita Hussain: The best part of my job is it is actually that it’s that connection with folks who are doing the work and who I feel some allyship with, like here.

David Martin: If you could pick one city in America where you feel like you know you’ve had an impact, what would that city be and what would people see if they went there?

Benita Hussain: I certainly feel like Phoenix certainly would be up there because of, you know, all of the efforts they’re putting there. I mean, it’s still grappling with all of these, you know, with, with extreme heat and will continue to do so. But I really love working. You know, there’s we have started, a statewide collaborative in Washington state where every, you know, there’s a goal for every city and across Washington state to have tree equity over the coming decades.

And it’s, you know, it’s a small towns that I really love seeing stories coming from. So I know, I know that when I say small, it’s not you know, some of them are not small, but it’s like, you know, the, the Spokane’s or some it’s kind of the lesser, you know, the unusual aspects when it comes to this stuff.

Yeah.

David Martin: All right. What do you do for fun?

Benita Hussain: I surf. Where in Rockaway, New York are you?

David Martin: What are those?

Benita Hussain: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

David Martin: And are you one of those that does it. So Rockaway Beach is in Queens. It’s way down, and the water can be rather cold.

Benita Hussain: Yes.

David Martin: So there’s a full wetsuit crowd that’s out there at 6 a.m.. Are you one of those?

Benita Hussain: Yes, I am, all winter long.

David Martin: Are you really?

Benita Hussain: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

David Martin: And I should point out that you’re about five to at about five, but.

Benita Hussain: Yes, all of those things are true. All right. Yeah.

David Martin: Go to the website, look at our picture and you can say, oh my goodness.

Benita Hussain: Yes.

David Martin: What did you learn to surf?

Benita Hussain: I learned to surf in Jersey. So not far. Not far away. Yeah. Old some friends of mine back then, ten, 15 years ago taught me. And I got hooked. And that was it.

David Martin: Back when you were a student in your summer house of the Jersey shore?

Benita Hussain: Yeah, basically.

David Martin: Basically how you got to Rockaway. How did you get out there?

Benita Hussain: I try to go, you know, in the summer months, I try to go once a week in the winter months, maybe once a month. It is hard. It’s hard and cold.

David Martin: Do you have a dry sea?

Benita Hussain: A no, no, just a thick wetsuit.

David Martin: Okay, I did, I did the polar bear plunge one year in Coney Island. That’s that’s as close as I come. Yeah. While that is fun, I. I’ve been to ask you this. You live in.

Benita Hussain: Brooklyn? Yes.

David Martin: Do you have trees in your yard? Do you have a Brooklyn backyard?

Benita Hussain: Yeah, I do have a Brooklyn backyard. I also live right next to Fort Greene Park, so I feel so a tree. Equity score of 100. Oh, good. Where I am, again, very lucky to be right next to walking park. And I have a backyard, and, you know, we we just we are very lucky compared to a lot of other folks.

David Martin: Have you planted any trees?

Benita Hussain: We have not. We have planted trees in the backyard. Okay. More for gardening and recreational purposes. Not for us. Serves, you know, now for not part of our public planting programs in your city.

David Martin: And here’s a question that that I you know, again, my own personal experience. Is it hard in a city to keep these trees alive?

Benita Hussain: It just depends on which city you’re talking about. But yes, in general it is. The urban environment is a harsher environment than, let’s say, a big serve, park.

David Martin: So this is where your cabal of scientists, attack the problem.

Benita Hussain: Yeah, well, we we work across with cities, and we try to investigate what works and what does not in those environments, and we try to provide the best expertise around.

David Martin: So this is the good government. Shall we always like to end on good government? Tell me what kind of impact you think that American Forest has had, and what are you proudest most really of what you’ve been able to accomplish? And if you’ve got a great example, I’d love to hear it.

Benita Hussain: Yeah. So we we really work on every part of the solution when it comes to urban forestry. And I think I’m just proud of the fact that we’ve we’ve tried to, again, be responsive to what is missing from this whole model and from this whole system and then build programs around that. So we work on workforce development. We work on, you know, again, federal policy that we’ve talked about, we work on deploying expertise to cities.

I think one of the things I’m most proud of and excited about is some of our workforce development, which we didn’t talk about very much, but we are starting a a very specific focus on how do we build a career pathway in urban forestry, again, to share in the economic benefits, but also to continue maintenance of trees in the long term?

We need labor to do that, and we’ve started, an endeavor initiative to work with, formerly incarcerated citizens, returning citizens on training and apprenticeships and licensing and placement into the job, urban force you workforce. So very excited about that.

David Martin: Well, that that is a lot of good government and a lot of good trees. So thank you for the work. Thank you. Benita Hussain of American Forest, it was a pleasure to talk to you and to have the longest conversation I’ve ever had about trees.

Benita Hussain: Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you.

David Martin: And the city of Faith, Texas. They don’t leave good government up to, well, fate. Join me in for another show I host. As fate would have it, my co-host is David Billings. The former mayor of fate who shares his opinions and thoughts on what good government is and fate. As you’ll hear, they don’t leave it up to fate.

So listen right here we are listening now to as fate would have it. Convince town to go out and plant some trees. If you’re listening and driving home, take a look at the trees in your neighborhood. If you’re in your home, next time you walk around the block, look up at those trees and when you may, visit some of the less advantaged neighborhoods in your city.

I bet you take a look and see how many trees there are or aren’t. One thing Benita Hussain said. Sticks out. She said trees are part of the fabric of a city’s well-being. After listening to her, I have to agree. So I don’t know about you, but I learned a whole lot about trees and I look at trees in an entirely different way.

That’s my conversation with Benita, who’s saying of American forests, there are more shows to come when we talk trees, so keep your gardening tools handy. Well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends and our viewers right here where you’re listening, and check out our website. Good government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government and action everywhere.

Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe, then share and like us and review us. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.