Students from across Los Angeles planted the region’s second TREEAMS (Trees + Dreams) nursery at Seven Arrows Elementary School’s Aldersgate Retreat Center in Pacific Palisades, expanding a student-led wildfire recovery effort inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall. The model lets students grow native trees on school campuses now, care for them for 1 to 2 years, and later plant them permanently when fire-impacted neighborhoods are ready.

TREEAMS is working to plant 5,000 trees across Altadena, Pacific Palisades, Malibu and surrounding areas following last year’s wildfires. Because many fire-impacted properties are not yet ready for replanting, EF Academy, one of the key TREEAMS school collaborators, developed a creative solution: Students grow young trees on school campuses and community sites now, care for them for 1 to 2 years and later donate and plant them permanently when neighborhoods are ready.

The first TREEAMS tree nursery was planted in April at EF Academy Pasadena, the temporary home of Altadena’s Saint Mark’s School. The second site brings the total to approximately 60 young trees growing across the two nurseries and showing how the model can scale across Los Angeles schools.

Students transplanted 30 young native trees from 5-gallon containers into 15-gallon containers, including 10 Toyons provided by Devil Mountain Nursery, 10 California Sycamores provided by Norman’s Nursery and 10 Western Redbuds donated by LA Conservation Corps. Community partners included Anawalt Lumber, a longtime Palisades institution that donated key materials.

The event also featured a completion of a bioremediation and planting project on the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club slope, where TREEAMS is working with the Center for Applied Ecological Remediation and the Palisades Forestry Committee to address fire-related soil impacts and model how communities can safely and sustainably re-landscape after wildfire.

This fall, the nursery work will be complemented by a robust curriculum developed with UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, EcoRise and participating educators. The curriculum will help students connect hands-on planting and restoration projects with lessons in reforestation, soil health, ecosystem recovery and environmental leadership.

“Jane Goodall always taught us to listen to children and give them a way to act,” said Margarita Pagliai, co-founder of TREEAMS and founder and Head of School of Seven Arrows Elementary School and Little Dolphins Preschool. “After the fires, so many people were stuck in fear and waiting. TREEAMS gives students a way to move forward, to bring beauty back and to help their communities heal by doing something real with their own hands.”

Pagliai, a longtime Pacific Palisades educator and community leader, helped make TREEAMS possible by bringing students, schools and partners across Los Angeles together in the aftermath of the fires. Seven Arrows Elementary School, which has been part of the Palisades community for decades, has played a central role in shaping TREEAMS from an idea inspired by Goodall into a growing student-led campaign connecting Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Malibu through reforestation, restoration and hands-on learning.

Students from EF Academy, who helped launch the first TREEAMS nursery on EF’s Pasadena campus, traveled to Pacific Palisades to teach elementary students from Seven Arrows Elementary School how to establish the Aldersgate nursery. The student-to-student model is designed to help TREEAMS expand to more schools this fall.

The Pacific Palisades location is especially meaningful. Aldersgate Retreat Center, including the Buerge Chapel, is next to the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club and across from Palisades Charter High School, in an area deeply impacted by the fires. The nursery and restoration work are intended to create a visible sign of progress, hope and renewal in a place community members pass every day.

The project also connects students from Altadena and Pacific Palisades/Malibu, two communities impacted by the 2025 fires, through a shared effort rooted in environmental restoration, hands-on learning and youth leadership.