Green Futures
Aria Santos
Reforestation Program Lead
“You can measure a forest in trees, but you feel it in the people who return to it.”
Aria Santos spent a decade as a park ranger watching the watershed near her hometown thin out year after year. When Green Futures launched a replanting initiative in the region, she left the park service to lead it full-time.
Her crews are mostly local volunteers - students, retirees, and families who grew up near the same trails. Aria built the training program herself, insisting every volunteer learn to read the soil, not just dig holes.
The watershed has now regained close to 40% of its original canopy cover, and volunteer retention is the highest of any Green Futures site in the country.