Nearly a month after the United States Forest Service terminated a $75 million grant to the Arbor Day Foundation, tree-planting non-profit organizations in Los Angeles have been forced to slow down — which can negatively impact low-income communities, according to the Associated Press.
The money was part of $1.5 billion allocated for urban and community forestry in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, but that grant was pulled this year in an executive order from the Trump administration ordering the termination of “wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
In a February 14 email, the Forest Service wrote that the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities,” according to the Associated Press.
USC Professor Esther Margulies, who is a team leader for the USC Urban Trees Initiative, which partners with the City of Los Angeles to develop an urban forest of shade trees, said that tree-planting nonprofit organizations are already seeing the effects of this financial cut.
“Organizations like Tree People, North East Trees and the Koreatown Youth and Community Center are already having to cut back their tree planting programs. These communities that they support are going to see fewer trees planted in their neighborhoods, and they will still be deprived of shade,” Margulies said.
Marguiles mentioned that a recent study conducted in Louisville, Kentucky, was published in the Nature Conservancy Magazine, measuring mental and other health outcomes in neighborhoods where significant tree planting programs were happening.
Aaron Thomas, director of urban forestry of North East Trees, said that in Los Angeles, there are disparities arising when neighborhoods have inadequate numbers of trees.
“Crime, domestic violence and other dysfunctional activities tend to be higher,” Thomas said.
Thomas added that those most vulnerable to the reduction in tree planting are people who lack air conditioning, rely on public transportation or walk, and children who go to schools where “playgrounds are primarily covered in black top asphalt.”
“There’s also a direct correlation between trees on school campuses allowing students to learn at a higher, better rate,” he said.
Thomas said that the team at North East Trees is “just kind of coming to grips with [the grant termination]. I think everyone was obviously in shock and then confused and or trying to understand how to respond.”
Thomas was a part of the organization during the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the grant did not fund the majority of their overall budget but that North East Trees’ operations were significantly funded by federal grants.
“There’s a whole cumulative hit that’s going to affect all urban forestry, urban greening organizations and nonprofits. It’s going to ripple throughout the environmental community,” he said.
Thomas shared how he thought North East Trees would move forward.
“Well, I’ll tell you what we’re not gonna do, and that’s apply for or rely on federal funding again,” he said.