You’ve probably heard that the Biden administration’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Actgive people big rebates and tax credits to switch to a heat pump or electric vehicle. But the law also includes a much less-discussed provision that could save lives: $1.5 billion for planting and maintaining trees that will lower the temperature in many American cities.
That money goes to the US Forest Service, which distributes the money to hundreds of applicants, including nonprofits and cities themselves. The $1.5 billion is nearly 40 times more than what the Forest Service typically budgets for planting and caring for trees in cities each year, and it’s earmarked for underserved neighborhoods. So far, the agency has awarded $1.25 billion of the funding, and is working to distribute the remaining over the next year.
“Going from $36 [million]-up to $40 million program with urban forestry, up to a little over $1.5 billion, was a significant infusion of dollars for things like tree equity, tree cutting, and more importantly, providing this type of funding to the underserved communities,” said Homer Wilkes, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the US Department of Agriculture.
While cities across the US already operate their own tree planting programs with their own funds, this amount of federal money is like winning the arborist lottery. “This is unprecedented,” said Edith de Guzman, a researcher at UCLA and director of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, whose research found that tree cover significantly reduced heat-related hospitalizations. “It’s a little yourself, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
However, planting trees in cities turns out to be a surprisingly complex challenge. Some species like live oak grow larger canopies, which provide more shade. Others, such as fruit trees, can provide food. Along a noisy street, residents may want bushier trees that better block sound. And all tree species capture carbon and clean the air by storing pollutants. Any green space also reduces urban flooding soak up rainwater.
With the IRA money, arborists will try to plant native tree species adapted to the local environment. “The native species here are going to do best with our climate, but also provide so many more benefits to pollinators,” said Jordan Herring, arborist and grounds maintenance manager for the city of Winchester, Virginia, which received some IRA funding. “Birds, small mammals, they’ve adapted to these species for so long.”
But just because a species is native doesn’t mean it’s perfect for a given location. Some species have deeper root systems while others stay closer to the surface, potentially cracking sidewalks and creating problems for residents in wheelchairs. So some of the IRA funding will also go toward planting trees on private property, such as around homes, apartment buildings, and businesses. In San Francisco, for example, native species such as the coast live oak and California buckeye, both of which would tear up sidewalks if planted on a street, would work well in a private yard. “This allows us to respond to a very common desire in the community of someone who says, ‘I really don’t want a tree in front of my house on the sidewalk, but I would love to have one in my backyard,'” said CEO Brian Wiedenmeier. director of Friends of the Urban Forest, another organization that received money from the legislation.
Any urban arborist will tell you they can’t do their job properly without considering what a neighborhood wants. “We can’t just parachute into any of these neighborhoods and say, ‘Lucky you — we’re here to plant trees,'” said Dan Lambe, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, which receives $50 million in IRA funding from the Forest Service have. to distribute to nonprofits, cities and tribal communities. “It requires relationship building.”
Port St. Lucie, Florida, which also received part of the IRA funds, holds citizens’ meetings where residents determine what kind of tree species they want, and where they want them planted. They also get updates on projects completed since the previous year’s summit. “So that residents can actually see the improvements and the input they’ve made and the changes they’ve been able to make in the community,” said Shereese Snagg, urban beautification project coordinator in the city’s public works department.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for an urban tree is the same for any city dweller: City life can be tough. When choosing species, arborists take into account that some need more light than others, and will wilt if a building blocks the sun. If a canopy grows too large, it can become entangled in overhead wires and electrocute itself, so trimming is extremely important. All the while, trees can be stressed by ever-warmer temperatures and less rainfall exacerbated by climate change, meaning tree growers must look to the future to find the right species to plant.
If one species is hardy and easy to care for in a particular city, the temptation for an arborist is to just plant them all over the place. But that lack of diversity would mean that they would all reach the end of their lives at once and have to be plucked out en masse. “If you throw in a pest or disease with that, you’ve got a serious situation on your hands, trying to remove a lot of trees before they die completely,” Herring said. “So one of my biggest pushes is also to get a lot of diverse species out there in the mix.”
However, just being a native species is no guarantee that a tree will survive. For the first year or so of its life, a tree needs regular watering until its roots are established. Sickly young ones will need to be cared for, and as they grow, they will need pruning to make sure they turn into a manageable shape. As a result, the Forest Service determines that the IRA cash goes to both planting and maintenance. “We didn’t just give these grants and turn them loose,” Wilkes said. “This will be a process that will actually be worked on and monitored over the next five years to make sure that the American people get what they pay for.”
Even in the longer term, the federal funding can help to strengthen some kind of an information-sharing network of arborists. The idea is to develop a nationwide workforce of people who can select, plant and maintain the urban forest for years to come. Especially in underserved neighborhoods, which can provide jobs while preparing a city for a warmer future. “I think trees can sometimes be seen as a nice-to-have in a must-have world,” Lambe said. “But what we’re learning through science and otherwise is that trees are no longer nice to have. They are a critical part of the city’s survival.”
