LOS ANGELES, California – A local environmental non-profit group hopes to plant a few seeds in the minds of young children in an effort to help nature heal Los Angeles. To assist in this effort, they adopted famed Hollywood actress, Annette Bening.

On October 2nd, Bening joined TreePeople to celebrate the opening of TreePeople Center for Community Forestry in Los Angeles’s Coldwater Canyon Park. The center is a four-acre, $10 million environmental education campus expected to serve more than 70,000 visitors annually.

“I love L.A.,” Bening said at the grand opening. “I love my neighbors, and I come to TreePeople all the time.

“We bring our children here, we bring our dogs here. Sometimes, we come here by ourselves to have some peace.”

Joined by public officials and local school children, Bening shared her passion for the environment by officially opening TreePeople Center, where visitors learn basic principles of how natural forests “work.”

Through the center, Bening and staff members hope visitors will ultimately incorporate those basic principles in an urban setting to actively prevent -– and protect against -– climate change, water and air pollution, and water shortages.

“Los Angeles was once a beautiful and healthy environment,” Bening added. “We can make L.A. that beautiful and healthy again.”

Consistent with TreePeople’s vision, the new green oasis at Coldwater Canyon Park promotes the creation of “functioning community forests” throughout Los Angeles. To realize this vision, TreePeople hopes the new center will inspire local residents, and government officials and business leaders will work together to transform neighborhoods into sustainable ecosystems that act like natural forests.

“Forests have always been the life support systems for the planet,” said Bening. “I’m inspired by TreePeople’s work in using trees as visible models of sustainability and helping to transform Los Angeles into a truly green city.”

Responsible for planting more than two million trees in the Los Angeles area over the past 34 years, TreePeople was founded by Andy Lipkis in 1973. Its vision is to inspire, engage, and support the people of Los Angeles to take personal responsibility for the urban environment.

“We are facing extraordinary challenges that threaten the future of our city,” Lipkis said. “We are creating a whole new city — a city that is healthy. This center is not just about learning but also action.”

Helping the center act is a 216,000-gallon underground cistern that will store rainwater collected from the center’s buildings and “Parking Grove” for use in landscaping.

The center also features an environmental training classroom for students and adults, a nursery where native plants grow to restore damaged local watersheds, and a watershed garden, promoting water harvesting and conservation through forest mimicking technologies.

Also, the center’s conference center building is LEED platinum-certified, making it the most sustainable building in the world.

“This is plain old public works,” said Los Angeles County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “We’re translating ideas into action.”

Los Angeles councilwoman Wendy Greuel hopes children will be part of that action.

“TreePeople is giving that seed of information to our children about how to save our environment,” she said. “As we look toward tomorrow, TreePeople is the leader.”

Bening believes the center will be more than just a model for local children, but for other cities around the world.

“This place will help L.A., one community at a time, and serve as a model for other cities worldwide.”

For more information about TreePeople and its center, visit www.treepeople.org. The center is located at Coldwater Canyon Park, near the intersection of Mullholland Drive and Coldwater Canyon Road in Los Angeles.

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