USDA grants $1 billion across the country to plant trees in hopes of reducing extreme heat
Hundreds of communities round the country will share greater than $1 billion in federal cash to assist them plant and preserve trees underneath a federal program that’s meant to cut back extreme heat, profit well being and enhance entry to nature.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce the $1.13 billion in funding for 385 tasks at an occasion Thursday morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The tree plantings efforts will likely be centered on marginalized areas in all 50 states in addition to Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and a few tribal nations.
“We believe we can create more resilient communities in terms of the impacts of climate,” Vilsack informed reporters in previewing his announcement. “We assume we are able to mitigate extreme heat incidents and occasions in many of the cities.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks throughout a information convention on June 29, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. Vilsack will announce a $1.13 billion funding for a whole bunch of tree-planting tasks at an occasion on Sept. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
In saying the grants in Cedar Rapids, Vilsack will highlight the japanese Iowa metropolis of 135,000 people who misplaced 1000’s of trees throughout an extreme windstorm throughout the summer season of 2020. Cedar Rapids has made the restoration of its tree cover a precedence since that storm, referred to as a derecho, and can obtain $6 million in funding by way of the new grants.
Other grant recipients embody some of the nation’s largest cities, comparable to New York, Houston and Los Angeles, and far smaller communities, comparable to Tarpon Springs, Florida, and Hutchinson, Kansas.
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Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, deliberate to be a part of Vilsack at the Iowa occasion. She informed reporters earlier that many communities have lacked entry to nature and that every one the tree grants would profit marginalized and underrepresented communities.
“Everyone should have access to nature,” Mallory mentioned. “Urban forests can really play a key role in ensuring both that access but also increasing the climate resilience of communities, helping reduce extreme heat and making communities more livable.”
The federal cash comes from the Inflation Reduction Act.