Planting Seeds of Change: Tree Fredericksburg Transforms the City’s Landscape

When Anne Little and her husband Carl moved to Fredericksburg in 2002, they noticed something missing from the playground behind their house: trees. Children were forced to play on scorching hot slides under the blazing summer sun with no shade in sight. That simple observation sparked a 17-year mission to restore Fredericksburg's urban landscape, one tree at a time.

"In 2007, we decided to apply for a small grant and planted 17 trees to shade the playground," Anne recalls. What started as a modest neighborhood improvement project quickly grew into something much larger. The following year, they planted 58 trees throughout their neighborhood, and they haven't stopped since. Today, as Executive Director of Tree Fredericksburg, Anne leads an all-volunteer organization responsible for 47% of the city's current trees on public land.

Anne's passion for nature began years earlier with an unexpected encounter. "When I moved to Virginia, I saw my first bluebird. I was instantly in love with this beautiful bird," she explains. That love led her and Carl to co-found the Virginia Bluebird Society in 1996, which now boasts over 500 members. Her interest in bluebirds naturally evolved into researching native plants, as she discovered that bluebirds rely on berries in winter and caterpillars in summer to survive.

The connection between bluebirds and trees revealed a larger truth to Anne: individual efforts, while meaningful, needed to be multiplied across the community to create real environmental impact. In 2010, Tree Fredericksburg held its first Earth Day tree giveaway, expecting modest attendance. "We immediately realized that there was a tremendous void when over 900 people came to get a free tree that day," Anne says. Since then, the organization has given away over 60,000 native trees and shrubs to the public.

The numbers tell an impressive story of grassroots environmental restoration. Over 17 years, Tree Fredericksburg has planted more than 10,000 trees throughout the city: over 550 in downtown, more than 1,000 in parks, and 700 in schoolyards. Anne intentionally scattered cherry and redbud trees throughout the city to add splashes of spring color. "Many of our streets that were void of trees are now shady and great to stroll on," she notes with pride.

What makes Tree Fredericksburg unique is its volunteer-driven model. The organization operates without any paid employees, instead mobilizing thousands of community members.

"Over the years, we estimate that over 8,000 volunteers have helped us with our tree planting, including students, churches, scouts, civic groups, and businesses," Anne shares. The volunteer pool has been remarkably diverse, including the director of public works from Kathmandu, Nepal, and a group from Prince William County Mosque, whose traditionally robed women "were faster than most of our volunteer groups and finished in record time."

For Anne, the greatest reward isn't found in statistics or accolades. "My biggest joy is when we take a group of young people out on Saturday morning to plant 50 trees in about 3 hours. I then ask them all to turn around and look at what they have done. Seeing the joy and the sense of accomplishment on their faces is my reward."

Her accomplishments haven’t gone unnoticed either. Recently, The New York Times featured Tree Fredericksburg as Virginia's representative in their “50 Environmental Fixes for 50 States” project, highlighting how the organization has “planted over 10,000 trees along the street, in the parks and in the schoolyard” and distributed “60,000 native trees and shrubs to the general public.”

Behind the scenes, Carl Little serves as the organization's backbone, having written grants totaling over $600,000 for tree planting initiatives. The couple's complementary skills— Carl’s organizational prowess and grant writing, paired with Anne’s public relations and volunteer coordination—have proven essential to Tree Fredericksburg's success.

Looking ahead, the organization plans to give away approximately 3,000 native seedling trees on March 28, with another giveaway scheduled for their Native Plant Festival on October 5, 2026. Anyone in Virginia can sign up at TreeFredericksburg.org to receive notifications about these events. Reservations for the free trees are required prior to the giveaway event and those on the email list will be notified when the sign-up window opens.

As Fredericksburg's trees grow taller and their canopies spread wider, they provide cleaner air, cooling effects, wildlife habitat, and natural beauty— all benefits that will continue to grow exponentially for generations to come.