Federal funding totaling over $1 billion will be distributed to hundreds of communities throughout the United States as part of a program to minimize excessive heat, promote health, and provide access to nature by planting and maintaining trees.
Campaign to Plant Trees
US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce $1.13 billion in financing for 385 projects during a morning press conference on Thursday, September 14, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Efforts to plant trees will target low-income neighborhoods in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and some indigenous regions.
Vilsack told reporters in advance of his announcement, "We believe we can create more resilient communities in terms of the impacts of climate. We think we can mitigate extreme heat incidents and events in many of the cities," AP News reported.
Vilsack will highlight Cedar Rapids when he makes the award announcements there. The said community is home to about 135,000 individuals in eastern Iowa that lost many trees in a severe windstorm in the summer of 2020. In the wake of that "derecho," Cedar Rapids has made it a priority to restore its tree canopy, and the new funds will help support the initiative to the extent of $6 million.
Some of the other beneficiaries of these grants include huge metropolitan areas like New York, Houston, and Los Angeles. The funding considerably includes tiny towns like Tarpon Springs, Florida, and Hutchinson, Kansas.
White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory was also scheduled to appear with Vilsack in Iowa. Earlier, she had told reporters that the tree assistance would primarily help underserved and disadvantaged populations who otherwise lack access to natural environments.
Mallory argued that everyone deserves access to nature. "Urban forests can really play a key role in ensuring both that access and also increasing the climate resilience of communities, helping reduce extreme heat and making communities more livable," she added.
The Inflation Reduction Act is the source of the mentioned government funding.
Rising Temperature Crisis
Previous reports have brought attention to the issue of temperatures continuing to rise.
While the West Coast was still recovering from Hurricane Hilary and the East was enjoying comparatively moderate summer weather, reports came in last month of a persistent and perhaps record-breaking heat wave engulfing the central US. Residents were being warned of the hazards of extended outdoor exposure as temperatures reached record highs.
Earlier last month, ocean temperatures even hit a new record high, breaking the old one by a significant margin and showing no signs of cooling down.
