Trees and the people who love them in Glendale, California

 Glendale Tree Stories is a public story-sharing project that celebrates the community’s unique, multifaceted, and historic relationship with trees.

This project was made possible by a $20,000 grant from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment of the Humanities. The grant was awarded to the City of Glendale’s Public Works Department in May of 2020 and used to create a project that fosters communication, stewardship, and consensus in the community around preserving the urban forest for future generations.

Between 2020 and 2022, the Tree Stories Project Team collected story submittals from Glendale residents about their favorite trees, researched local history, and interviewed community leaders for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation and preservation of Glendale’s most popular parks and open space destinations.

For the project’s final print collection, “Coexisting: Glendale Tree Stories,” the project artist, Elkpen, transformed a selection of this material into a series of comics, mixing personal stories from the community with local natural history, tree lore, and reflections on urban nature.

All tree story submissions, along with Elkpen’s comics, are archived on this website.

“These projects will bring the complexity and diversity of California to light in new ways that will engage Californians from every part of our state, and will help us all understand each other better,” said Julie Fry, President & CEO of California Humanities. “We congratulate these grantees whose projects will promote understanding and provide insight into a wide range of topics, issues, and experiences.”

Glendale, known as the “Jewel City,” is one of the largest cities in Los Angeles County. With a population of about 200,000, Glendale is a thriving cosmopolitan city that is rich in history, culturally diverse, and offers limitless opportunities. It is the home to a vibrant business community, with major companies in healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, retail, and banking.

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California Humanities promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more visit www.calhum.org, or follow California Humanities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.