015: The Urban Forest and the Importance of Trees with Cindy Blain

A Sustainable Mind - environment & sustainability podcast

Marjorie Alexander

Society & Culture, Science, Nature

4.6 • 588 Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2016

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cindy Blain had a background in marketing and tech but wanted a life for her family out of Silicon Valley and closer to nature. She has worked with environmentally focused non-profits such as the Presentation Retreat & Conference Center and Sacramento Tree Foundation. Now, as the Executive Director of California ReLeaf, she is at the helm of not just any non-profit but a network of over 90 organizations throughout California that are dedicated to planting and caring for trees in the urban forest. In this conversation we go behind the scenes of California ReLeaf, discuss how trees improve every facet of our lives and consider how sprawled cities can learn a thing or two from the compact development of smaller countries.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is A Sustainable Mind, Episode 15.
0:03.8	Trees are going to be even more necessary for us to adapt to a changing climate and be resilient.
0:10.4	We have to make sure that we design livable, healthy cities, cities where people can thrive.
0:16.9	Welcome to a Sustainable Mind podcast, where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups, inspiring the environmental changemakers of tomorrow. I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander.
0:34.1	Hey, friend. Are you an avid listener of A Sustainable Mind? Or maybe this is your first time listening.
0:39.7	I want to know a little bit more about the environmental and sustainability topics that you want to learn more about, because I want to gear future episodes to your interests.
0:48.8	Send the word survey to the number 323-536-1120. Or just visit our homepage, asustainablemind.com.
0:58.8	Now, on to the interview.
1:00.9	Having grown up in rural New Jersey, Cindy Blaine is no stranger to nature, or the woods,
1:06.4	as she calls it, but she is now the executive director of California Relief and is constantly working with
1:12.4	both people and trees, including trees in the urban forest, all across the state of California.
1:17.6	So, Cindy, welcome to the show. Thank you for inviting me. So, Cindy, I would like to know about where you come from, your involvement with environmental sustainability
1:30.6	or nature growing up. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. I come from a lot of different
1:35.8	places because my family moved every two to four years. My dad was in construction where we would
1:42.4	build a building and then move on. But I started in New Jersey and we lived pretty much in what you could call rural New Jersey with woods nearby.
1:52.6	So I was from the generation in the 60s where you spent a lot of time outside.
1:56.8	We moved to Connecticut at another point and again I spent a lot of time in the woods, is, after living in California, I found that that's an expression you hear from back east.
2:05.5	You don't talk about the woods so much in California.
2:08.3	And trees, because I'm in the tree business, I've had to think about this.
2:12.2	How did I get involved with trees?
2:13.5	But trees were always around, and I was always outside.
2:17.0	So what was kind of the light bulb moment, not necessarily getting into California Relief,
	...

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