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The city of Syracuse will receive $1 million to plant trees and increase youth education and job training as part of the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program, Sen. Chuck Schumer announced in a Thursday press release.

The new funding will build on Syracuse’s Urban Forestry Master Plan from 2019, a multi-decade plan that aims to grow the canopy equitably, improve urban forest safety and resiliency as well as connect the entire community to the urban forest by 2038.

The provisions stem from the USDA’s Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program, which is funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Clare Carney, a community forester at the Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation, & Youth Programs, said the funding gave local community organizations and university researchers the chance to collaborate and build a foundation for structural and economic stability in the city.

“It was just a really great opportunity to have all those kinds of gaps that we see in our community filled in so that we can start reaching some of our planting goals, start reaching some of our goals for community wellness,” Carney said.

To apply for the funding, the city of Syracuse submitted a proposal titled “Rooting for Syracuse: A community-based approach to advancing tree equity” this summer. It joined hundreds of proposals submitted by other local and state governments, community-based organizations, nonprofits and other entities, according to a release from the USDA UCF program.

Syracuse’s proposal was one of 385 selected. Nearby Auburn will receive $945,000, and the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board will receive $9 million, bringing the total funding for central New York to $10,945,000, according to Schumer’s press release.

In addition to increasing education and workforce training, the city intends to use the funding to plant thousands of trees, revitalizing the urban forest in the city area, according to the release. Trees combat the effects of urban heat islands — a phenomenon in which urban areas experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas — in addition to sequestering carbon and providing shade.

Ted Endreny and Lemir Teron, two professors at SUNY ESF, conducted research on heat islands last year and found that low-income community members in downtown Syracuse are disproportionately affected by the urban heat island effect. Downtown neighborhoods have the highest average temperatures while having a lower average income than other city areas. The pair concluded that an area at 100 degrees would be around 90 degrees Fahrenheit with 20% more tree coverage.

Historically, the largest environmental detriments to human health come from buildings without sufficient ventilation or air conditioning, which are more common in lower-income communities, said Jay Golden, SU Pontarelli professor of environmental sustainability and finance and director of the Dynamic Sustainability Lab. Planting trees can help to mitigate the issue, he said.

“If you focus on underserved communities or low-income communities, from just an engineering standpoint, there are strong benefits to reduce the impacts of the urban heat island or these heat waves,” Golden said.

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With the funding, the city of Syracuse will collaborate with community partners to increase environmental education and employ hundreds of people with the goal of preparing them for careers and higher education programs in urban forestry, land management and landscaping, the release said.

Partners include SUNY ESF, the Gifford Foundation, Onondaga Earth Corps, Tree Equity Fund, Department of Neighborhood & Business Development, Department of Parks, Recreation & Youth Programs, Syracuse Land Bank and Home Headquarters.

Beyond just reducing urban heat islands, Golden said other benefits of such a large investment in urban forestry are “multifold.” Research shows that planting trees will provide community health benefits like lower morbidity, diminished crime, higher property values and greater pride in one’s own community, Golden said.

Environment investments are a relatively newer strategy in the environmental movement, with the IRA being the largest in U.S. history, said Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science at SU’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Regulatory politics were common at the beginning of the 1970s, but after failed attempts and years of gridlock, the Biden administration may have shifted its approach to investment, Pralle said.

An investment of this size, she said, demonstrates how critical and transformational infusions of federal money can be. Carney said she views the funding as a way to support projects Syracuse knows it needs to be doing.

“Funding is really where we need to go. We have the motivation, we have the enthusiasm, we have the people behind it, the expertise behind it, and so this was just a really great step in the right direction for us,” Carney said.

Published on September 21, 2023 at 12:33 am

Contact Claire: charri39@syr.edu