TreePeople is celebrating more than 50 years in Los Angeles with a new exhibit.

Fifty years ago, a teen at a summer mountain camp learned about smog in Southern California and its effects on forests. Andy Lipkus was inspired, and by the time he was 19, he raised funds to plant 8,000 trees in the San Bernardino National Forest -- the beginning of the TreePeople movement.

Within its first four years, the organization planted 50,000 trees.  

TreePeople has not only helped grow the Los Angeles urban forest, but also educates youngsters at its Coldwater Canyon Park headquarters. 

A new exhibit at the center, "History in Bloom," lines the walls of the Shuman family foundation conference center. Alex Miller of TreePeople curated the event and said that over 12,000 students come up to the park every year.

"Back in the 80s, there was an air quality management plan that said we needed a million trees to combat the smog," Miller said. That plan was expected to take 20 years, but through campaigning and catchy slogans, and the help of Angelenos, TreePeople planted a million trees in four years.

The organization wanted to spread its roots and created community foresters, giving them the tools to plant their own trees.

"We had one of our citizen foresters, Eudora Russell. She wanted to do a monument to Martin Luther King Jr in a way that would actually change a community," Miller said.

So in one day in 1990, with thousands of volunteers, they planted 300 trees on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that still cool the pavement 35 years later.

"It's a really important tool for us to use in adapting to a change in climate," Cassie Rauser, TreePeople CEO, said, adding that the next 50 years will be a battle against climate change.

Rauser said cooling can be addressed in many different ways, but trees are the natural way, providing benefits beyond shade.