In Celebration of Earth Day, Let’s Talk About Investing in Community Forests
6 questions with USDA leader and national environmental policy expert Nausheen Iqbal
Last year, the USDA’s Forest Service made a historic investment of over $1 billion in urban and community forests around the country. Grants were awarded to communities in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and several U.S. territories, islands, and tribal nations, supporting them to plant and maintain trees, combat extreme heat and climate change, and improve access to nature.
In celebration of Earth Day, we spoke with Nausheen Iqbal, acting Assistant Director for the USDA’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, to learn about the importance of trees in our communities and how recent investments are making a lasting impact. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Why should we invest in America’s urban and community forests? What are the risks if we don’t invest and the benefits when we do?
Nausheen Iqbal [NI]: For a lot of people, the trees in backyards and on streets are their most immediate connection with nature. We have a lot of amazing public lands in this country, but those lands are not as accessible in the same way as the trees you see outside your window or when you’re driving down a street.
Community-based green spaces provide respite. We saw this especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when we couldn’t be inside congregating with other people. People went outside to their nearest green space and met with others and had that sense of community.
Trees are critical to making communities more resilient to heat and mitigating the impacts of climate change, such as stormwater flooding. Trees can provide food security for people living in a food desert. Fruit trees and nut trees, such as banana trees in island communities, can be a reliable source of native fruits and foods. Also, a good, balanced ecosystem includes wildlife, and providing habitat is another benefit of community trees.
For all of these reasons, trees are not something we consider “nice to have.” Communities must have trees, and we should invest in America’s urban forests.
Q: Last year, USDA awarded more than $1 billion in grant funding through the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program to support communities in planting and maintaining trees, combating extreme heat and climate change, and improving access to nature. What are some of the innovative ways communities will be investing these funds?
NI: We wanted to address some core themes and priorities with a sufficient amount of funds to make headway.
One priority is tree planting and maintenance — and 90% of grants will support the planting, monitoring, and long-term maintenance of trees. Maintenance is an essential, long-term investment. In communities dealing with heat, trees that might have survived before might not survive anymore, or they might need a different kind of maintenance. An amazing amount of knowledge goes into putting trees in the ground and maintaining them so they reach a stage where they can help mitigate the impacts of climate change.
In response to climate change, 43% of these projects will mitigate extreme heat, and 60% of the projects will support climate-adapted tree planting and strategies.
Another priority is workforce development. The Urban and Community Forestry Program supports workforce development for local communities, creating green jobs to make communities resilient. Of the projects funded, 45% will create and sustain living wage jobs. Some communities are innovating by providing a holistic set of benefits that go beyond hiring someone for a job. For example, we funded a project through an organization called Rising Appalachia that created a unique apprenticeship program for young adults in a former mining town in Ohio. Apprentices work alongside experienced mentors with technical skills in forestry, agroforestry, nursery management, craft production, and entrepreneurship to create and manage businesses that have a positive and meaningful impact in their struggling community.
There’s also community engagement and planning, which is about educating and empowering communities. Community members should engage in decisions on urban forestry, and they need to consider options that will mitigate current or future climate impacts. The awards are going to people who have been thinking innovatively and holistically about how to get communities engaged in these processes. TreePeople in California plans to meet their community members where they are. Their process starts by hiring forestry and community organizing staff that are from the area, so they are aware of the priorities and challenges of the community. Their goal for their funded project is to inspire, engage, educate, and support residents in revitalizing portions of Southern California and building resiliency through nature-based solutions.
Through education, communities are sharing with people why they should plant more trees, where to plant them, how to avoid issues like trees falling on houses during storms, and how, in communities facing water conservation issues, to conserve water.
Another promising area is the greening of schoolyards across the country. This work helps mitigate heat island effects around schools that have no green infrastructure. And it teaches kids why we’re making these investments in the first place.
Q: Let’s talk more about maintenance. Why is it crucial and how is it showing up in the grants to communities? How do we shift priorities so there is equal focus on caring for existing trees as on planting new trees?
NI: One part of it is language. We are making sure we don’t talk about tree planting without saying “and maintenance.” If anybody says, “tree planting,” we add, “and maintenance.” We’ll be that annoying person who’s always correcting you. There are still a lot of programs saying they will plant trees without mentioning maintenance. So as we work through our process with our grantees, we make sure to ask what their maintenance looks like.
I’ve had some people say, “I live in a region that doesn’t require much maintenance.” Or, “I live in a place where our vegetation grows really well.” And I have said, “That’s great. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need a maintenance plan. Because unless you are going out and checking on those trees and measuring that they are doing well, you cannot tell us that they will survive.” And I mention situations in which people have told us they planted trees and the trees died because of the heat or they didn’t realize they had to water on a certain schedule.
We are also looking at ways to measure survivability. How do we ask grantees to tell us how many of their trees have survived? That starts with a really good maintenance plan.
There’s also education, making sure communities are fully engaged and have the resources to know whether their green infrastructure needs more maintenance or whether it’s surviving and doing well. That can be done at the volunteer level but ideally it will be at the workforce level, with training so people can understand how to have healthy, growing trees that will survive the impacts of climate change.
Q: Philadelphia received a $12 million investment to support its Philly Tree Plan — one of the biggest local grants awarded. What made their work particularly compelling to fund at that level?
NI: We have had substantial involvement in the Philly Tree Plan from two parts of the Forest Service: the research and development side and our Urban and Community Forestry side. Philadelphia’s plan is a 10-year strategic plan, and what’s really impressive about it is their approach to community engagement.
They engaged 9,000 residents. They had about 40 stakeholder groups involved. They sent tree ambassadors into communities to understand the issues on the ground. For example, they learned that, in some older neighborhoods, older trees were breaking up sidewalks and making it hard for people to walk. Their proposal has a five-year implementation schedule, and 100% of the funding and benefits will flow to disadvantaged communities.
The planning piece was so thorough that it gave us confidence about the city’s ability to implement its plan on a large scale. Philadelphia became a model for how we looked at other cities, particularly their community engagement plans. We asked questions like: How are they engaging their most underserved communities? How are they reaching communities that don’t speak English or the communities with the least trees? Are they talking about displacement and helping to allay those fears?
Q: Trees and urban forests are known to combat climate impacts like extreme heat and poor air quality, but they can also support social connection by creating comfortable, beautiful spaces for people to gather. How are communities using these grants to reimagine their civic infrastructure?
NI: I’ve seen innovative ideas involving people thinking about green spaces in a variety of ways. In Washington, DC, a community is planting trees as a tribute to victims of gun violence. It’s a memorial about healing, growth, and a sense of community. People who have lost loved ones can come together and connect while also experiencing the mental health benefits of nature.
Some cities are planting trees as memorials for victims of COVID-19. The pandemic hit underserved communities in a harmful way that they’re still reeling from and the trees create a space where community members can join together.
In Baltimore, the Forest Service has supported a church called Stillmeadow Community Fellowship. They’re using acreage outside of the church in ways that the community needs, including a Peace Park, a community garden and a food forest trail. They’re thinking holistically about community needs around healing and around having a place to recreate and walk. The church is in an underserved community, and there are a lot of physical health issues. So having a place to walk peacefully and get exercise is essential.
Q: What else is on the horizon for USDA? Are there public space or urban forestry opportunities coming up that communities may be interested to learn about?
NI: The over $1 billion in grants from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided an amazing opportunity. I’ve heard people say it was once in a lifetime, but we hope it’s not once in a lifetime because of how important these investments are for fulfilling the needs of our communities.
The Urban and Community Forest Program existed before IRA, and we will continue onwards. Communities and partners should get to know the urban forestry coordinator or partnership coordinator in their state. Reach out to them to find out about opportunities on the horizon and opportunities to grow green infrastructure created by new legislation.
Right now, small grants are available through states from a $250 million fund for underserved communities. And 27 states still have open RFPs or are developing them. It’s a great opportunity for many communities because this funding is more accessible and much of it is still available. Check out the state forestry agencies for these funding announcements.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration of The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and local partners.
