USDA Opens Application for $1B Urban and Community Forestry Program
Eligible applicants: local governments, District of Columbia, tribal entities, nonprofits, higher education institutions. Applications are due: June 1, 2023
Opportunity: 2023 Inflation Reduction Act for Urban and Community Forestry
Announcement Type: Notice of Funding Opportunity (the program is now open to applications)
Overview and Eligible Uses: The Forest Service making up to $1 billion available in Urban and Community Forestry competitive grants for projects aimed at promoting sustainability, resilience, and equity in urban forests, while also creating economic opportunities and addressing environmental challenges such as extreme heat, flooding, and invasive pests.
Eligible activities for urban forest projects encompass a diverse range of initiatives aimed at fostering community engagement in urban forest planning and management, improving equitable access to urban tree canopy cover and parks in disadvantaged communities, encouraging long-term planning and management, implementing proactive maintenance and monitoring of urban trees, advancing the use of inventories and monitoring tools, improving storm preparation and recovery efforts, protecting watersheds, providing paid training opportunities for urban forestry crews and youth employment, developing workforce development pathways, addressing invasive pest species, collaborating across jurisdictions for equitable access, and engaging with other professions for planning and goal setting.
Amount: Awards will range $1M to $50M, with a total funding allocation of $1 billion.
Award Type: Competitive grant
Eligible Applicants:
Local government entity
Agency or governmental entity of the District of Columbia 04.12.2023 4
Agency or governmental entity of an insular area (as defined in section 1404 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3103)
Federally Recognized Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations/villages, and Tribal organizations as defined in 25 USC 5304 (l) and operating within the United States, or its territories
Non-profit organizations
Public and State-controlled institutions of high er education
Community Based Organization Applicants that include contributing partners must clearly describe the relationship between the applicant and the “partner(s).” Partner organizations from disadvantaged communities must be full partners in the project. A letter of commitment is required to be submitted by each contributing partner
Key Dates: Applications are due on June 1, 2023
Key Links:
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.
This tracker will continue to send updates when new funding opportunities are announced.