To prepare for Philadelphia’s initiative to plant 300,000 trees, we need to address the social challenges it will create. In some neighborhoods in Philadelphia, there is a resistance to trees because of the inconveniences irresponsibly planted trees create; buckled sidewalks, broken pipes, fallen branches, and so on.  Even though these kinds of trees are no longer planted, many people have only interacted with these trees in negative circumstances, which feed the myths and stigmas about trees altogether.

The goal of Urban Arbor’s Tree Chair project is to increase positive interactions with trees in an effort to nurture empathy and respect towards them. The best way to experience the physical and visible benefits of trees is to be under them. By simply providing a chair, which happens to be under a tree, an individual will begin to notice the shade, the cooler temperatures, the birds, the flowers, and so on. The chair becomes the catalyst for establishing a relationship between city residents and their neighbor trees, in order to best prepare for the new ones.