Imagine a world without trees. If you live in a mountain community, it may be inconceivable, but if you live in the city, it may feel like a reality. One Denver nonprofit, The Park People, works to ensure we can all live among trees and enjoy their benefits.

“Our mission is to work with communities to plant trees and improve parks for a healthy, resilient future,” says Mackenzie Sanders, communications manager.

The organization — which started more than 50 years ago as a group of park enthusiasts who planted trees on a volunteer basis — has grown into a nonprofit that runs five programs promoting the planting of trees in Denver’s parks and communities. It has planted more than 60,000 trees since its inception.

“What started out as a volunteer network has expanded into a citywide effort,” Sanders says. The ultimate goal? To create “a vibrant Denver where all residents have access to the benefits that trees and parks provide.”

Most of us already know that trees beautify an area, provide shade and improve air quality, but they offer many other benefits, as well.

“Trees can serve to lower the temperature of an area by 15 to 20 degrees,” she explains. “A single tree in its lifetime can offset almost 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, uptake over 50 pounds of pollution and intercept over 40,000 gallons of storm water.”

That means that in addition to direct health benefits, such as improved air quality, trees can help cool one’s home and lower the costs resulting from air conditioning on hot summer days. They can mitigate and prevent flooding and the repair costs from flood damage and mold (as well as mold-related illness).

Not only can trees improve one’s physical health and save money, but they provide homes for birds and wildlife, which then offer benefits of nature, even within the city.

Trees also offer indirect benefits, from boosting mental health to fostering stronger, healthier and more vibrant communities.

Research shows hospital patients have a higher recovery rate when in a room that overlooks trees or parks than those who look out to a cityscape or have no window in their room at all, Sanders says.

“Trees help reduce the ‘broken window’ effect,” she says. “When you go into a neighborhood and you see someone planting a garden, planting a tree or watering a tree … that is a subconscious connection that the people living here care about their community.”

“The term ‘tree equity’ measures how trees are promoting the equity of the lives of people,” Sanders adds, which is why the organization works to ensure the majority of trees planted under its programs go to low canopy, low-income neighborhoods.

Its Denver Digs Trees program offers 1,000 or more trees to Denverites for free or low-cost each spring. The organization trains community foresters who help residents select the best tree for each location and teaches them how to plant and care for the trees.

“Our goal with that program is to promote not just the planting of trees on private property, but the stewardship of those trees and green spaces directly within those communities,” she says. “The fact is, if you don’t plant a tree correctly, you’ve already lost it. Trees take a long time to grow. If you’re planting a tree incorrectly and you keep having to start over, you’re putting off all the benefits a tree can provide.”

In addition to Denver Digs Trees, the organization’s programs include Community Forester, which, in addition to teaching community members how to plant, prune and care for trees, teaches them community engagement and leadership skills; Mile High Tree Champions, which works with companies that invest both funding and volunteer hours to enhance Denver’s tree canopy; TreeForce, which trains the previously incarcerated to become urban foresters; and Park Legacy, which facilitates the planting of memorial trees in Denver’s parks.

Sanders and her family recently planted a tree in Washington Park through the Park Legacy program. They chose to plant an oak tree in honor of her grandfather when he passed. Sanders visits the tree every few months. She loves watching the tree grow and begin to shade picnic tables and a playground. She sits in its shade and remembers not only her grandfather, but also a sycamore so huge, it shaded her grandparents’ yard when she was a child.

“I loved that tree,” she says. Sanders thinks of her family each time she sees a sycamore. And, now, she thinks of her grandfather each time she visits his oak tree. “I would say that’s a full circle moment.”

Whether a tree is planted in a low canopy neighborhood, in a park or in memoriam, every tree contributes to the city’s urban canopy, offering numerous benefits to individuals and the community.

“We want Denver to be a really beautiful place where everyone feels comfortable being outdoors,” Sanders says.

Lu Snyder
Writer

Originally published in the winter + spring 2025-26 issue of Well.