This year, Casey Trees celebrates 25 years. Milestones like this invite reflection: on the progress we’ve made, the difficulties we’ve overcome, and the legacy we’re building together for the city and region we call home.
This strategic plan is the product of that reflection. Over the past year, staff, board members, and partners across the region came together, through working sessions, surveys, and honest conversation, to ask what Casey Trees should aspire to achieve in the years to come. What follows is the result of that work.
Planting and protecting trees has always been at the heart of what we do. Our new strategic plan moves us from a focus on trees to a more integrated and intentional vision of people, trees, and spaces. It recognizes that a healthy urban forest is not only about planting and protecting trees – it is about creating cooler, healthier, more equitable communities where everyone can experience the benefits of nature close to home.
Andrew Schichtel
Executive Director
Our Mission
To plant and protect trees in the national capital region for the wellbeing of the communities we serve.
Our Vision
A future where every person, in every community, lives among thriving trees and green spaces.
Our Focus
People
Connect communities to the urban forest through inclusive partnerships, welcoming green spaces, and responsive programming.
Goals
• Strengthen Casey Trees’ reputation as a trusted, culturally relevant community partner in priority neighborhoods across the National Capital Region.
• Grow and diversify Casey Trees’ education, volunteer experience, and workforce development programming to deepen urban forest stewardship across all ages and learning contexts, with a focus on priority communities.
• Strengthen Casey Trees’ board and staff by deepening community representation, broadening the range of experience and background, and investing in the growth of our people.
Our Focus, Already in Action: Growing the Next Generation
At Garfield Elementary, a Ward 8 school, Casey Trees partnered with FoodPrints, a nonprofit food and garden education organization, to bring tree and ecosystem education to students. Together, they planted 30 fruit and shade trees — expanding the school’s edible garden and outdoor classroom while cultivating a greener campus and the next generation of tree stewards. Learn more –>
TREES
Build a resilient, equitably distributed urban forest across the National Capital Region through coordinated stewardship, strategic investment, and cross-jurisdictional collaboration.
Goals
• Measurably improve the tree canopy and native green infrastructure across the National Capital Region.
• Advance the policy, regulatory, and funding conditions necessary to sustain a healthy regional urban forest.
• Significantly expand the region’s protected green space and urban tree canopy through strategic land conservation.
Our Focus, Already in Action: One Yard at a Time
Casey Trees works with residents across the District to plant thousands of trees and install native gardens each year. These plantings bring shade, beauty, habitat, and cleaner air to individual properties while helping create cooler, greener, and more resilient neighborhoods — one yard and home at a time. Learn More –>
SPACES
Strengthen our organizational capacity to deliver lasting impact for the green spaces our communities share, and the influence to help lead and grow the field of urban forestry.
Goals
• Grow and diversify the philanthropic and earned revenue base that funds Casey Trees’ programming and operations.
• Transform regional green spaces — including Casey Trees’ conservation sites — into welcoming, community-stewarded places that foster lasting connections to the urban forest
• Leverage Casey Trees’ regional expertise to strengthen and grow the urban forestry field.
Our Focus, Already in Action: A Neighborhood Forest, Restored
At Langdon Park in Ward 5, a small but dedicated group of community partners, the Langdon Park Forest Stewards, partnered with Casey Trees and city agencies to restore a local forest patch. Together, they planted more than 350 trees and helped thousands of new native trees take root through Assisted Natural Regeneration. Through years of hands-on care, they revived the land. It proves what just a few committed people can do for their own community. Learn More –>
Why Trees Are Essential: Exploring Our Tree Canopy
Our region’s tree canopy is more than a backdrop – it’s an essential part of healthy, resilient communities. From cooling our neighborhoods and protecting water quality to connecting communities and enriching our daily lives, trees provide benefits we depend on. Explore our current tree canopy coverage and the vital role trees play in our region’s future to understand why protecting and expanding this resource is central to our strategic plan.
Regional Tree Canopy
Our tree canopy is the layer of leaves and branches that covers the ground when viewed from above. Cities and counties across the National Capital Region have set goals to protect and expand tree canopy, including a wider, regional goal of maintaining at least 50% coverage and DC’s goal of reaching 40% by 2032. See the interactive map below to view tree canopy within DC and the capital beltway.
DC & Capital Beltway Tree Canopy Map
Why trees?
Trees make neighborhoods healthier, cooler, and more beautiful by improving air quality, managing stormwater, providing shade, supporting wildlife, reducing urban heat, and curbing the effects of climate change. They can also calm traffic, reduce noise pollution, lower costly energy bills, and even reduce anxiety and improve heart health. We are still learning about the positive benefits trees bring to our communities. And when trees are thoughtfully incorporated throughout a neighborhood, everyone benefits.
The Benefits of Trees
There’s even more to our story.
Our strategic plan brings these focus areas together, sharing our hopes for the future and the steps we’ll take to get there. We invite you to explore the full plan and see what we’re working toward together.
Get Involved
Casey Trees plants in parks, schools, and homes. DC Residents can plant a tree FOR FREE in their yard.
Learn more about how Casey Trees conserves land in the National Capital Region.
A donation to Casey Trees supports our work planting, caring for, and protecting our tree canopy – all year long.