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The Heart of Tree City USA in Philadelphia
Meet Lori Hayes, the tree champion who helped shape nearly 50 years of Tree City USA leadership in Philadelphia
February 20, 2026
Known in her community as the Tree Lady or Tree Queen, Lori Hayes has earned both after more than four decades devoted to Philadelphia’s urban forest.
For Lori, trees were never just part of the job. They were the job — the calling, the responsibility, the joy.
Lori began her career with the City of Philadelphia in 1981 and retired in October 2023 as Director of Urban Forestry at the Department of Parks and Recreation. Over 42 years of public service, she helped care for the trees that make Philadelphia more livable, and helped guide the city through nearly half a century of participation in the Tree City USA program.
She didn’t just witness Philadelphia’s Tree City journey. She helped shape it, protect it, and pass it on.
“I always looked for the Tree City USA signs,” Lori says. “Everywhere I went, I’d check how many years other cities had. Philadelphia? We’ve been in it since 1976. That mattered to me.”
A CAREER ROOTED IN SERVICE
Lori is widely known and deeply respected as a hardworking, service-oriented city worker. In 2022, she was named an Integrity Icon, recognized in part for her efforts to make TreePhilly programs more accessible to everyone, including elderly residents, people who are blind or visually impaired, and low-income communities.
She led initiatives that partnered with high school students to plant trees in underserved neighborhoods and worked to ensure that tree programs weren’t just available, but welcoming and inclusive.
Her own career followed the same grounded, steady path.
Lori started as an intern, then worked as a gardener and groundskeeper, later becoming a technician before rising to Director of Urban Forestry. Decades of commitment, lived almost entirely in public service.
As director, she was responsible for planting and maintaining the trees that shape Philadelphia’s streets, parks, and neighborhoods — and for making sure tree-centered programs reached the people who needed them most.
GROWING UP WITH TREES
A graduate of Walter B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, Lori’s passion for plants started early. She was heavily involved in FFA and drawn to horticulture at a time when it wasn’t always seen as a conventional career path.
She began working for the city doing grounds maintenance — hauling trash, working special events, learning Philadelphia from the ground up.
“Look up, look down, look all around,” she recalls being told early in her career. “That’s how you learn trees.”
Lori studied at night and learned to identify trees by their clues. Cherry blossoms, magnolias, sycamores — trees stopped being background scenery and became living systems with stories of their own. Over time, she moved through the ranks, eventually overseeing tree care across one of the nation’s largest and oldest park systems.
TREE CITY USA AS A WAY OF LIFE
Philadelphia has been a Tree City USA community for 50 consecutive years — an achievement rooted in consistency, commitment, and community buy-in. For Lori, Tree City USA wasn’t just a designation; it was a framework that helped make trees visible, valued, and celebrated.
“Tree City USA kept trees front and center,” she says. “Arbor Day mattered. Education mattered. Recognition mattered.”
Every year, each of Philadelphia’s arborists was expected to lead an Arbor Day program at a local school. Kids planted trees. Community leaders showed up. Proclamations were signed. Gold-painted shovels came out.
And kids learned something essential.
“I used to ask them, ‘How do trees make you feel?’” Lori says. “They’d look up, look around — and they always smiled.”
Those moments — small, human, memorable — were the heartbeat of Tree City USA in Philadelphia. They helped connect urban forestry to something deeper: pride, stewardship, and belonging.
A MENTOR’S LEGACY, AND PAYING IT FORWARD
Lori is quick to credit the tree leaders who came before her, especially Robert McConnell, a mentor who helped shape Philadelphia’s Arbor Day traditions decades earlier.
“He saw something in me,” she says. “And I never forgot that.”
That sense of continuity — of learning from those who came before and lifting up those who come next — defines Lori’s legacy. She proudly supports the next generation of urban foresters, including her successor, Erica Smith, whom she describes as part of a “sisterhood in trees.”
“Every tree person has a story,” Lori says. “Mine might be different from hers, but the perseverance is the same.”
Even in retirement, Lori keeps watch. If a city misses a Tree City USA designation? She notices. If a memorial tree is planted? She shows up. If someone wants to talk trees? She’s ready.
“I just want people to remember why trees matter,” she says.
TREES AS INFRASTRUCTURE — AND AS HOPE
Over the decades, Lori watched Philadelphia confront rising heat, dense development, and aging infrastructure — challenges increasingly shared by cities across the country. Trees, she says, were never a silver bullet, but they were always part of the solution.
“Planting trees is a small but meaningful way to address heat in residential neighborhoods,” she explains. “The health department recognized that. The city recognized that.”
Through Tree City USA, Philadelphia earned Growth Awards, sustained long-term canopy goals, and embedded trees into broader conversations about public health, stormwater, and livability, long before those connections were widely understood.
“It was about awareness and importance,” Lori says. “Once people understand that, they buy in.”
FIFTY YEARS AND STILL GROWING
Today, Lori’s living room tells the story of a life spent growing greener cities. Framed certificates. Proclamations. Photos from Arbor Day plantings past. A reminder that this work leaves lasting impact.
When asked what Philadelphia’s 50-year Tree City USA legacy means to her, Lori says, “It’s heartfelt. I’m proud, and I’m glad I’m here to talk about it.”
As Tree City USA celebrates its 50th anniversary, Lori Hayes stands as proof of what the program makes possible: not just healthier trees, but dedicated people who carry the mission forward year after year.
“Plant a tree,” she says. “Why not?”
For Lori, it’s always been that simple.
Photo Credit: Sabina Louise Pierce
