CAMPUS PLANTINGS

Tree New Mexico offers a special program for teachers, administrators and families that want to plant trees, care for trees, and learn about trees – all at their own campus. 

We can assist in:

  • planning where the trees will go
  • choosing the best palette of trees for that unique site 
  • organizing a community tree planting event to get them in the ground
  • developing a tree curriculum or weaving trees into a curriculum for your students
  • and training youth and their families to do the basic care in years to come

Over our 30 years, we’ve done hundreds of tree programs for youth and planted trees on campuses throughout New Mexico. 

If you’d like your campus to be considered for a planting, please fill out the questionnaire below.

For more information, contact plantinginquiries@treenm.org. 

Campus Plantings Questionnaire
Disclaimer for Campus Plantings
Tree New Mexico has made numerous efforts in the past six years to work with APS schools to provide trees and planting events for school campuses. We have found, however, that the structure of approvals for this kind of community partnership is impossible to navigate. There is little or no support for “greening” campuses among the senior management at APS that controls campus building and site planning and maintenance. And, even where there has been solid support from teachers, principals and families of children at a school, we have found it virtually impossible to create a successful planting.

We have had success with adding a few fruit trees to a school garden at APS sites and with some larger plantings at charter (provided APS does not control the campus) and at private schools.

As such, we are happy to take your inquiry for a campus planting for an APS school and explore a bit what you hope to achieve. We simply want to warn you that the likelihood it will happen is slim until APS’s Administration gets serious about the value green living spaces bring to providing healthy spaces for growing children.

- Shannon Horst, Executive Director

La Puerta de los Niños Preschool Tree Planting!

Tree New Mexico planted eleven shade trees across the campus and nine fruit trees in a small orchard at La Puerta de los Niños. The trees were planted on October 29, 2022, utilizing TreeNM trained Team Leaders, teachers, staff, and parents using our community planting model.

The planting was funded by TreeGreenNM, a program of the Foundation for Building a Sustainable World. They are seeking to develop a successful model for planting trees on school campuses and at locations where organizations are serving vulnerable people and there is a need for tree sanctuary-type spaces.

La Puerta de los Ninos preschool is near the bosque forest along the Rio Grande River. The campus needed shade, and the director and staff would like to include fruit trees in the diet and curriculum for the children.

Adobe Acres Elementary School Tree Planting!

Tree New Mexico planted six trees in the school garden at Adobe Acres Elementary School on October 20, 2022. Trees supported the goal of the garden of being an outdoor classroom with medicinal herbs that is pollinator-friendly.

International District Plantings at Van Buren Middle School and Wilson Middle School!

Tree New Mexico planted 50 fruit trees in the International District (ID) on May 6, 2022 and 50 fruit trees on October 8, 2022 as part of the EPA Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program of tree plantings and tree education for a total of $200,000. Van Buren Middle School, Wilson Middle School, several residents and nonprofits received fruit trees in partnership with the HEC Front Yard Garden program that shares produce with neighbors and pedestrians to address the food desert in the area.

Van Buren Middle School’s ‘Si Se Puede’ Garden received fruit trees at both fruit plantings. Bridget Llanes planted at the first event and Skye Ontiveros at the second, plus Van Buren students, TreeNM Team Leaders, and community members.

Wilson Middle School’s Wildcat Garden received pecan and fruit trees on May 6, 2022 as part of the EPA EJCPS Cooperative Agreement Program funding and the HEC Front Yard Garden program. This garden is an oasis of green in the area and high school students request to come back to the middle school to intern.

Western Heights Learning Center Tree Planting!

Tree New Mexico partnered with Verizon, the Arbor Day Foundation, Tree Green NM, Green Summit Landscape Management, and Southwest Tree Specialists to plant 40 trees at Western Heights Learning Center. The October 2021 planting included irrigation, an orchard of six dwarf fruit trees that children can help harvest, and 35 shade trees across the campus.

Located in the South Valley, Western Height Learning Center is a nonprofit elementary school that has been serving low-income Albuquerque families since 1968. Included in the project is a reclaimed wood bench built by Southwest Tree Specialists and a memorial stone plaque created by Rocky Mountain Stone.