We love trees.  We love planting them and watching them grow.  We want to give every child this joy.

Neighborhood Forest was founded in 2010 by Vikas and Priya Narula.  When Vikas was a college student in the early 1990s at Maharishi International University (Fairfield, Iowa), he was introduced to a free tree project started by David Kidd of Ohio. Vikas and his college friends adopted the program and gave away tens of thousands of trees to school children across southeast Iowa.

Shortly after graduating from college, Vikas moved to Minneapolis, met Priya, and they put down roots.  Years later, when their first son was entering kindergarten, they decided to rekindle Vikas’ college love of giving trees to schoolchildren and started Neighborhood Forest.

What started with 4 schools in Minneapolis has grown to over 2,000 schools, libraries, and youth groups spanning all 50 states and 6 provinces. Our goal is to reach every child in North America and, eventually, the world.

Join us.

Investment to plant an urban tree through the hands of a child and their parents via Neighborhood Forest:

$5

Estimated health, environmental, and economic benefits from one urban tree over its lifetime:

$30,000-$70,000

Getting to plant and watch a tree grow from seedling to maturity:

Priceless

A message from our Founder

This photo of Priya and I is from 1998 – the year we got married.

We had someone take this photo in front of a silver maple tree, which I had planted 5 years earlier (in 1993) when it was just six inches tall. I couldn’t believe how much it had grown in just a few years.

In 2013 (20 years after I planted it), I took my kids to pay homage to this “little” baby of mine.

It was huge! Even too big for the kids to climb.

There is an amazing feeling that comes with planting a little tree and seeing it grow to maturity – watching your life and kids grow with them.

It is this wondrous feeling that gave rise to Neighborhood Forest. Now we get to pay the joy forward.

Please send us photos of your kids and trees, especially as they both grow together – we love to share the joy of planting and watching trees grow.

Thank you for being part of this magical journey.

~Vikas Narula

Neighborhood Forest

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