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If You Want It, You Got It

BY DARRELL R. YUEN
JANUARY 2005

New York -- The name of a former employer keeps coming up whenever I have discussions with friends about inspiring and truly heroic figures of our times. Andy Lipkis of Los Angeles has spent all of his adult life, and a good part of his adolescence doing just that. Andy is the founder of the 31 year-old TreePeople Inc. based on Mulholland Drive, that most storied and serene spine of mountain road overlooking the vast urban basins of Los Angeles and San Fernando.

The story goes that when Andy was a fifteen year-old Angelino walking and camping in the serene hills and valleys of the majestic San Gabriel Mountains just north of Los Angeles, he began to take notice of the stark loss of trees and other vegetation throughout the landscape. This was in 1974, the awakening of Americans to the ravaging forces of air pollution and smog on the environment.

Bothered by the magnitude of this problem, Andy began his march to put an end to it. Not phased by all the experts at the time told who him there was nothing anyone, and especially a 15 year-old kid, could ever do to solve the problem, Andy mobilized several of his fellow summer campers that year and tore up a parking lot (think Joni Mitchell’s, “Big Yellow Taxi”) in the area in preparation to plant some trees, nature’s answer to air purification. Now all they needed were the trees.

Andy found some, 8,000 to be exact, sitting in a surplus yard of the California Forestry Service. The trees, if you can believe it, were ready to be destroyed. Andy lobbied hard to have the trees released to the campers for them to plant in their newly torn-up parking lot and the forests surrounding Los Angeles. Finally, the teenage Andy convinced the State to hand over the trees and his career as a tree planting activist began.

Now, 31 years later, Andy’s organization, TreePeople, continues to thrive and is now a $5 million a year operation. They employ close to 50 people in a serene setting atop Los Angeles, sheltered by a wonderful stand of oaks and pines. TreePeople is also in the midst of building what will be the most sustainable office structure in Los Angeles, furthering Andy’s vision of leading his hometown down a path of harmony with its natural environment.