By Mackenzie Sanders
The Park People, a Denver nonprofit, works with communities to plant trees and improve parks for a healthy, resilient future. Since 2010, The Park People’s Mile High Tree Champions program has partnered with neighborhood groups, local businesses, and large corporations to plant trees in spaces across the city, such as parks, schools, and affordable housing communities.
To be a Mile High Tree Champion is to champion community, play, wellness, public space, and of course, trees. For our 2025 champions, it meant taking the time, money, and effort to invest in something that would benefit not just their workplace or neighbors, but all Denverites. 14 groups sponsored plantings at schools, gardens, parks, and hospitals this year, and they taught us that passion and creativity can go a long way to making a planting successful and fun.
For example, longtime partners Denver Rotary Club and POWER Engineers teamed up to double their capacity and plant trees at Barney Ford Elementary, increasing the quality of life and learning for students in the Montbello Neighborhood. Meanwhile, after Accenture and Bulleit Bourbon planted 55 trees at Sloan’s Lake Park, Elephant Energy returned to weed and mulch the area, ensuring both newly planted and well established trees at Sloan’s have the best chance of survival.
Some Mile High Tree Champions are expanding their reach beyond one Park People program. In partnership with Arbor Day Foundation, United Airlines not only sponsored a tree planting at Town Center Park, but donated a $25,000 matching fund in honor of Earth Day and The Park People’s Denver Digs Trees program, to ensure that all Denver residents have access to free and low-cost trees.
“Trees cool our air, shade our cities, and improve our health in more ways than one. Planting trees is building up critical infrastructure; it’s as simple as that,” said Lex Bengston, community trees project coordinator for Arbor Day Foundation. “In the past five years, projects led by The Park People in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation have planted 519 trees and given away an additional 1,952 trees. We foresee this partnership continuing for years to come with many more trees going in the ground for the benefit of the Denver community.”
This year, these incredible partners planted and stewarded 378 trees throughout Denver. A city is made up of private and public spaces, and Mile High Tree Champions exists at this intersection. Private businesses, corporate and environmental groups, local and national organizations are coming together to make Denver greener, cooler, healthier, and more joyful.
As a Mile High Tree Champion, your company or organization contributes funding and energy—and The Park People handles the rest. Bring your team outside, roll up your sleeves, and help grow Denver’s tree canopy. Our turnkey, team-building tree planting events are the perfect way to invest locally in the environment and your employees—all in one day.
2025 Mile High Tree Champions & Locations:
- Accenture – Sloan’s Lake Park
- Bulleit Bourbon – Sloan’s Lake Park
- Columbia Private Trust – Barnum Park
- Denver Rotary Club &
- POWER Engineers – Barney Ford Elementary
- Dormer Harpring – Chaffee Park
- Elephant Energy – Sloan’s Lake Park
- Intermountain Health – Platte Valley Hospital
- John & Chris Bruell & Arbor Day Foundation – Denver Center For International Studies At Fairmont Elementary
- Newmont – Sobemaria Urban Farm
- Salesforce – Barnum Park
- Snell & Wilmer – Barnum Park
- SustainEd – Florence Crittenton High School
- Swire Coca-Cola – Montbello Central Park
- United Airlines & Arbor Day Foundation -Town Center Park
We are now recruiting Mile High Tree Champions partners for 2026—visit www.TheParkPeople.org to learn more and get involved.
