What’s in South Bend’s $1.87M Urban & Community Forestry Grant?

The City of South Bend is committed to doubling its urban tree canopy by 2050. This will require planting more than 100,000 trees within 26 years. A recent grant from the USDA Forest Service will help South Bend jumpstart this initiative by growing ~9,000 trees in urban tree nurseries.

Last year, the USDA announced ~$1 billion dollars of investment to support 385 communities through the Urban & Community Forestry Grant (2023). As the City of South Bend, we applied for and are being awarded $1,867,730 to expand a network of urban tree nurseries across the City.

What exactly is an “urban tree nursery” ?

The Forestry division of South Bend’s Venues, Parks, and Arts (VPA) manages tree nurseries to grow street trees from small tree whips (baby trees) to larger saplings that can later be transplanted. The City transforms lawns on underutilized areas (e.g., vacant lots) to host trees instead.

What are we going to do with this historic investment?

Mayor Mueller helping to plant a tree nursery! The City of South Bend purchases baby trees, grows them in nurseries, and transplants when they’re big enough.

1. Plant and Maintain Urban Tree Nurseries: The City will plant and maintain 23.5 acres of additional urban tree nurseries on retention basins, parks, vacant lots, and South Bend schools over the 5-year grant period to grow ~9,000 additional trees for South Bend.
2. Increase Workforce Development Opportunities for Urban Forestry: The City’s Upskill SB program that provides low- to no-cost training and certification for residents will expand to add a forestry certification track. This will include working with Greater Impact’s Mentor and Mow program to help maintain urban tree nurseries.
3. Implement Educational Programs at Schools: Shirley Heinze Land Trust will help local teachers lead educational programming at public schools in South Bend. Students will learn about urban ecology and its significance to human health.
4. Engage Community Members and Increase Public Awareness: The City will host multiple events through the grant period including initial groundbreakings, annual arbor day celebrations, and tree giveaways. The City and our community partners (e.g., enFocus) will work closely with the community and communicate progress.
5. Evaluate Program Success: Indiana University South Bend’s Center for a Sustainable Future will develop social and environmental impact evaluations of the urban tree nursery expansion in a hyperlocal context. Teachers and students will assess various factors such as quality of life implications. IUSB and the City will monitor change from baseline data in average air quality, temperature, noise, and other parameters as trees are grown and planted.

IUSB students are gearing up for hyperlocal analyses on tree canopy.

“The (city) grant will fund students to work for the next several summers. This summer we’re going to be focusing on soil quality in the sites that are going to become tree nurseries,” Schnabel said. “Once the trees are in, we hope to be able to work with the students to evaluate tree health and some of the other ecological or environmental benefits of having those nurseries.” Read more here.

What types of trees will the City plant in its nurseries?

The City aims to not only increase the number of trees, but also the diversity and resilience of the entire urban forest. This requires being thoughtful in our species selection. Considerations include:

• Increasing species diversity: to protect against the risk of disease, no one type of tree should dominate South Bend. The City of South Bend is analyzing our current tree species diversity, setting future diversity goals, and planning to get from point A (current state) to point B (diverse and resilient!).
• Increasing native species: South Bend has an opportunity to plant trees that benefit local wildlife, such as birds and butterflies. Our neighbors might like to plant more redbud trees (Cersus canadensis) and flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida). South Bend also has a number of invasive trees that must be removed and replaced over time.
• Global warming: In November of 2023, the USDA changed its plant hardiness zone map for the first time in over 10 years — the 2023 map is ~2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 2012 map (Source). Global temperatures are continuously rising, and that might have an impact on which species are going to be successful (or not) in South Bend’s future.
• Urban tolerance: The urban environment requires hardiness. Trees close to roads, buildings, and crosswalks must deal with higher-than-average temperatures (urban heat island effect), acidic soils, salt from roads, mowers, dogs, and pollution.
• Respecting human values & resident choices: For our urban forest to thrive, our residents must be heard and understood in the planning and planting processes.

If you’d like to tell us where forestry efforts could be focused, please use this mapping tool on Together South Bend as part of our 2024 climate action planning process. For example, a grove of old growth trees could be mapped as climate action “strength.” Know of an area that needs more trees? Highlight it as a “challenge” with a pin point location!

Trees along the beautiful St. Joseph River.

More information and opportunities to engage on urban forestry planning will be available soon. We look forward to growing our urban forest together with you! Until then, learn more at https://www.southbendin.gov/urbanforest