Andy Lipkis

Andy Lipkis began planting trees to rehabilitate smog and fire damaged areas when he was 15 years old. He founded TreePeople and has served as President since 1973. TreePeople has been an international guiding light for the Citizen Forestry movement. Andy's programs include airlifting bare-root fruit trees to Africa, inspiring the planting of one million trees in L.A. before the 1984 Summer Olympics, and numerous disaster relief efforts during flood and fire. A recent program is T.R.E.E.S.—Transagency Resources for Environmental and Economic Sustainability. T.R.E.E.S. demonstrates the feasibility and facilitates the implementation of integrated urban ecosystem management to increase the health and sustainability of our cities.