Member Highlight: Casey Trees
For this Member Highlight, the Coalition’s Maryland State Lead, Marisa Olszewski, interviews Kelly Collins Choi, Director of Policy and Land Conservation at Casey Trees. Their edited conversation follows.
What city and state is your organization based in? What area do you work in?
Casey Trees (CT) is based in Washington, DC works throughout the District, as well as regionally in Maryland and Virginia. In fact, Casey Trees has collaborated with several organizations (and other coalition members) in Baltimore. We also have a tree nursery in Berryville, VA where we grow all the trees we plant alongside the District’s nursery, which is co-located at the site.
Tell us about your organization and your mission.
We are a non-profit, created a little over 20 years ago, with a mission to restore, enhance, and protect the Tree Canopy of the National Capital Region. We plant over 6,000 trees annually and, over the past two decades, we have established ourselves as an urban forestry leader, not only by planting more than 50,000 trees, but also by educating thousands of people about how trees make urban areas more livable and sustainable. CT actively engages the DC Council and citizens to advocate for a city-wide goal of 40% tree canopy by 2032, as well as local legislation to support natural infrastructure and improve water quality, air quality, and climate resilience.
What is one of your current projects you are the most excited about?
CT just won a five-year, multi-million dollar grant from the US Forest Service to expand our work into federally-designated disadvantaged communities in DC, Virginia, and Maryland. The grant will fund tree planting, tree maintenance, school programming, invasive vine removal, and green workforce initiatives. It is a significant demonstration of trust in CT’s ability to have an impact across the Washington metropolitan region.
What issue area do you hope to focus on in the future? How is it relevant for clean water restoration?
We are a conservation land trust, and we have been increasingly focusing on how we can preserve our city’s remaining intact ecosystems and support the health and resilience of our communities using greenspace to mitigate climate impacts, such as extreme heat and flooding, in vulnerable areas of our city. We are targeting ecologically sensitive areas such as wildlife corridors, wetlands, steep slopes, and areas important for water quality – particularly tributaries of the Anacostia River – for conservation and restoration.
What do you hope to gain from being a member of the Coalition?
We hope to work collaboratively with advocacy organizations throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, recognizing that our waterways and ecosystems don’t abide by city or state boundaries, and that our region is interconnected in both development and climate impacts. We feel we have a lot to gain – learning from other organizations in the coalition, but also look forward to contributing our own experiences, especially in community engagement, policy and advocacy work in Washington, DC.
What’s your favorite part about your job?
My favorite part is equally split – community advocacy and land conservation work. I love getting to actually see the impact of my work. I also find building community support for strong environmental policy to be particularly gratifying.
