Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell Joins Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and Los Angeles Parks Foundation for A Tree Planting Ceremony on June 16 at 8am

 On June 16, Barnsdall Art Park Foundation (BAPF) in partnership with the Los Angeles Parks Foundation, Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and Department of Cultural Affairs will plant 40 olive trees currently missing from the Historic Olive Grove at Barnsdall Park (4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027). 

The planting takes place from 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM and a ceremony will be held from 8-9 AM, marking the next phase of a bold collaborative effort to restore and sustain Barnsdall Art Park’s historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed landscape, the cornerstone of which is the grove of olive trees that first gave Olive Hill its name back in the 1890s.

The world-renowned 11.5-acre park and cultural destination in East Hollywood includes Hollyhock House, created by Frank Lloyd Wright for Aline Barnsdall, which is Los Angeles’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. As part of this ambitious undertaking, which began in 2021, the Olive Grove’s irrigation system was improved while the 463 existing olive trees were fully pruned and dead stumps removed, making way for this new planting to occur, bringing life and beauty to Olive Hill.

BAPF has raised and contributed $33,000 to plant and maintain 40 new olive trees, which includes 2 years of follow up care, through the Los Angeles Park Forest program, created and managed by the Los Angeles Parks Foundation (www.laparksfoundation.org). Los Angeles Parks Foundation’s mission is to enhance and preserve public parks for the City and their Los Angeles Park Forest initiative adds trees to city parks to offset the carbon footprint, cool surface air temperatures, and educate the public about climate change. The Barnsdall Olive Grove Initiative will improve the air quality of the East Hollywood community and support the ongoing tree planting goals of L.A.’s Green New Deal.

“Barnsdall Art Park is a unique and priceless gem in the City of Los Angeles, and this Olive Grove Initiative is yet another reminder as to why,” said Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell. “Preserving the existing trees and propagating new, healthy olive trees into the campus’s landscape is an essential step in preserving this historically significant grove that is an essential contributor to this cultural resource we all cherish, Barnsdall Art Park, and UNESCO World Heritage Site Hollyhock House.”  

A number of individuals have donated trees in honor of loved ones. Nathan Miller, CEO of Miller Ink, will be donating and planting a tree as part of the event in memory of his late grandmother, Harriet Miller, who worked as a trailblazing Director of the Barnsdall Park Junior Art Center for many years. 

Planting trees is one of the most important investments we can make in our communities and this initiative is both an environmental justice and a climate action program. Barnsdall Art Park Foundation invites Angelenoes to support the ongoing revitalization of the Barnsdall Olive Grove through donating at www.barnsdall.org