PURPOSE: The purpose of the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Grant is to provide financial assistance to local units of government for the development of local urban and community forestry programs. These activities must help to establish, manage, conserve and preserve the urban and community forests from inner city to associated public lands.

Eligibility:

1) Local unit of government or a co-application between a local unit of government and a not-for-profit defined by the General Not-For-Profit Corporation Act of 1986.

2) The applicant must have an approved tree care ordinance or equivalent or must use Application A to ask for funding to create a tree care ordinance. The ordinance must accomplish the following:

a) establishes tree authority,
b) specifies duties and responsibilities of Tree Authority,
c)specifies the number of members and their qualifications,
d) identifies the need and importance of local urban forestry programs,
e) identifies tree planting and tree care standards, and
f) contains the provisions for hazard and diseased trees from private property.

3) By law, the program is set up as a 50/50 cost share reimbursement, with no more than 5% of the total funds available to one unit of government.

4) Eligible Core Local Urban Forestry Program Projects include: tree care ordinances, tree board establishment, tree inventories, tree preservation ordinances, comprehensive urban forestry management plans, forest insect and disease mitigation plans, residual wood utilization, public education on urban forestry, training of city staff on tree care, tree planting/beatification, tree care demonstrations beyond routine maintenance, Tree and Utility Conflict Resolution, and Tree preservation/tree protection demonstration sites.

For other information see the links below: