{"id":6567,"date":"2026-08-09T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6567"},"modified":"2026-08-09T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:06:17","slug":"our-city-forest-founder-stepping-down-as-head-of-urban-forestry-nonprofit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6567","title":{"rendered":"Our City Forest founder stepping down as head of urban forestry nonprofit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4>A new leaf<\/h4>\n<p>Our City Forest\u00a0founder Rhonda Berry is stepping down as president and CEO after 34 years and will transition to board advisor. The nonprofit\u2019s board of directors has appointed Tara Sreekrishnan as executive director. Sreekrishnan is the co-founder of local nonprofit Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and serves on the Santa Clara County School Board.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6566\">The ballad of Mark Bulwinkle, West Oakland\u2019s funkiest metal sculptor<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our City Forest (OCF) was\u00a0founded in 1994, but\u00a0Berry began creating it in 1992 with the vision \u201cOne Million People, One Million Trees.\u201d Most of OCF\u2019s efforts toward this goal were funded with $35 million in grants and donations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people think that the city pays for our projects and trees because \u2018City\u2019 is in our name, yet over all the years, OCF has raised its own funding to finance its planting projects\u2014about 95% of them,\u201d Berry said in a release.<\/p>\n<p>This funding has financed the trees, materials, coordination, planting and three-year stewardship of some 85,000 large canopy trees and 25,000 shrubs along streets and at nearly every San Jose school and park. Other OCF efforts include a year of full-time, paid on-the-job training to nearly 700 AmeriCorps service members; mobilization and training of some 175,000 community members; and the building and operation of the OCF community nursery and training center and its outdoor education center.<\/p>\n<p>Our City Forest will host a fundraising gala,\u00a0Growing Our Future, on Friday, Sept. 25, to celebrate Berry\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6564\">Oakland police are poised to exit federal oversight. Can they sustain \u2018constitutional policing\u2019?<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Fair game<\/h4>\n<p>The 82nd\u00a0Santa Clara County Fair is set for Aug. 19-23, when attendees can enjoy carnival rides, live entertainment, pony rides and a petting zoo. As ever, the fair will also feature competitive exhibitions, including livestock and agricultural competitions, home arts displays and educational demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p>Other attractions include camel rides, pig races, a reptile show and an interactive butterfly exhibit where fairgoers get to feed the butterflies. Also on the agenda are a live mural-painting competition and Lucha Libre-style wrestling matches.<\/p>\n<p>Main stage entertainment includes Freestyle Friday with DJs Brotha Reese, Chuy Gomez, Hugo Gomez, Frank Morales and Looney Tunes.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For more information and tickets, visit\u00a0thefair.org. Tickets will also be on sale at the main entrance to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6562\">Broken trust: San Jose Unified parents say district fell short after closing campuses<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhonda Berry has guided the greening of San Jose for over 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Our City Forest founder stepping down as head of urban forestry nonprofit - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6567\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our City Forest founder stepping down as head of urban forestry nonprofit - 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