WashU undergraduates are invited to spend the morning learning from Tim Beatley. Over breakfast, we will have a discussion of the emerging importance of urban trees and forests in addressing the climate, energy and human health challenges faced by cities today. Beatley will survey what cities are doing to protect existing trees and canopy as well as to grow new forests. From planting tiny-forests in public spaces, and on balconies and rooftops, to rethinking street trees, to re-growing old-growth forests in and around cities, Beatley will present the optimistic future vision of forest urbanism.

Presentation and discussion will be followed by a walk around the Danforth campus to discuss possible places to create a new mini-forest, with the goal of establishing the plantings later in the fall.

This event is free and open to WashU undergraduate students.

Speaker Bio: Tim Beatley is the author or co-author of more than twenty books, including Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities, Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age, Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature Into Urban Design and Planning, and The Bird-Friendly City: Creating Safe Urban Environments (Island Press, 2020).  His latest book is The Ethics of Cities (UNC Press 2024).

Beatley directs the Biophilic Cities Project at UVA (http://biophiliccities.org/) and co-founded UVA’s Center for Design and Health, within the School of Architecture.

He is currently in the process of establishing a new center at UVA–the Center for Forest Urbanism–with seed funding from the Jefferson Trust.

Organized by Living Earth Collaborative with support from Knight Fund.

People of all abilities are welcome and encouraged to attend all events hosted by the Living Earth Collaborative. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, please contact the Living Earth Collaborative at least 5 business days before the event at  livingearth@wustl.edu.