TreePeople, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit focused on urban forestry, has received a $1 million grant from The Boeing Company to launch a comprehensive California Wildfire Restoration Initiative in response to the numerous wildfires that have ravaged Southern California in recent years.

Priorities of the initiative include educating the public to strategically restore forest lands after a fire; expanding environmental education and fire safety programs for students and families; and engaging the community in on-the-ground restoration. Planning will commence this summer with a roll-out of the associated programs in the fall. During a five-year period, the initiative will train and support over 7,500 volunteers to restore over 10,000 strategic acres, targeting forest and woodland areas that have burned so intensely in past fires that they are unlikely to recover on their own.