Students Plant Second TREEAMS Nursery as Youth‑Led Wildfire Recovery Expands Across Los Angeles

Students planting trees (Photo – EF)

One year after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, students from Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu are accelerating a youth‑driven recovery effort that is beginning to take root across the region.

By News Desk

Their goal is ambitious: plant 5,000 native trees over the next three to five years to help restore communities still struggling to rebuild. The project, called TREEAMS (Trees + Dreams), was inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall shortly before her passing and has quickly become a unifying force for students affected by the fires.

Because many burned properties remain unsafe or unprepared for replanting, students and partners at EF Academy Pasadena developed a practical workaround. Instead of waiting for neighborhoods to be ready, they are creating tree nurseries on school campuses and community sites, caring for young native trees for one to two years, and then donating and planting them permanently once recovery allows.

The first TREEAMS nursery opened on April 21 in Pasadena with 30 trees. On Tuesday, students planted the second nursery—another 30 trees—at Seven Arrows Elementary School’s Aldersgate Retreat Center in Pacific Palisades. Additional planting events at Will Rogers State Park, Rustic Canyon and along Temescal Canyon have added 40 more trees, bringing the early total to 100.

The Pacific Palisades nursery marks the first major expansion of the model, signaling that the student‑led approach is beginning to scale. More schools are expected to adopt TREEAMS nurseries this fall, broadening the network of youth participating in long‑term ecological recovery.

Tuesday’s event also included the completion of a bioremediation and planting project on the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club slope. TREEAMS collaborated with the Center for Applied Ecological Remediation (CAER) and the Palisades Forestry Committee to address fire‑related soil impacts and demonstrate how communities can safely and sustainably re‑landscape after wildfire.

Together, these efforts show how students, many of whom were directly affected by the fires, are finding meaningful ways to contribute even while their neighborhoods continue to rebuild.