Commonwealth Nursery
CLIMATE CHANGE
Nurturing Future Urban Forests
The Commonwealth Nursery in Griffith Park is a public-private partnership between City Plants, LA City Parks, and the LA Conservation Corps with support from the LA Parks Foundation.
“I love what I do here at the Corps. Every day I get to work with amazing people, while being out in nature. The best part is working alongside our Corpsmembers and teaching them new skills in horticulture. I believe that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m fortunate to have such a cool job that I love.”
– Nursery Manager Amanda Bashir
Located on an 11-acre historic site in iconic Griffith Park, the Commonwealth Nursery is an urban ecological laboratory for growing trees from locally sourced seeds and a training ground to nurture the next generation of urban forest stewards. Together the partners are building a multi-disciplinary program with the goals of strengthening climate resilience, meeting the City’s tree canopy equity goals, creating a more livable city for all Angelenos, and building pathways to the green jobs of the future.
LA Conservation Corps staff and Corpsmembers manage the nursery and the plant propagation efforts as well as tree distribution to urban greening projects all around Los Angeles.
In the coming years, the Nursery will begin:
- Regional seed collection and propagation of targeted species to supply locally grown plant material to public green infrastructure and ecological restoration projects.
- Developing a Green Workforce Development curriculum to train Corpsmembers in tree and plant propagation for a climate-ready future; tree, plant, and green infrastructure installation, maintenance and monitoring; and nursery and arboriculture best management practices.