LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A nationwide effort to plant shade trees is getting caught up in the Trump administration's efforts to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Here's WWNO's Eva Tesfaye.
EVA TESFAYE, BYLINE: Arthur Johnson drives his truck around the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. He says the whole city gets really hot. But here?
ARTHUR JOHNSON: In the Lower Ninth Ward, it just seems like the temperatures are much greater here in the summer.
TESFAYE: Greater than, say, other wealthier neighborhoods, like uptown New Orleans. And he says that difference is in part because of trees.
JOHNSON: You just have lots of oak trees, and you can tell they've been around a long time. And they filter out some of that heat.
TESFAYE: Trees are proven to reduce heat in cities. They also take up stormwater when it rains and improve air quality. That's all important in New Orleans as climate change intensifies storms and raises temperatures. Johnson's organization, the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, was helping to plant 1,600 trees in the Lower Ninth Ward, a majority-Black neighborhood. Johnson says the city still hasn't recovered all the trees lost to Katrina 20 years ago.
JOHNSON: And so the new trees that you saw being planted are trying to build up that canopy.
TESFAYE: The funding for this project was part of a $75 million pot of money to plant trees in communities all over the country. But last month, the Trump administration terminated the entire program. Johnson says the sudden reversal undermines the trust his organization built over the years.
JOHNSON: You build to try to get people to have some confidence into what's going on in the environment and what's going on in the community and governments. And when they start to kind of feel, well, maybe we can trust them, then bye-bye, you know?
TESFAYE: In a letter terminating the contract, the U.S. Forest Service stated the program no longer aligns with agency priorities regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, said in a statement the agency was complying with Trump's executive orders. One of which calls for ending programs and grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion, which it calls discriminatory and wasteful. Susannah Burley is the executive director of Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, which was managing the federal grant in New Orleans. She says it's absurd to cancel the grant as an equity program.
SUSANNAH BURLEY: That has nothing to do with this grant funding. The word equity is pervasive in the grants that were funded by this but in a totally different context.
TESFAYE: Ladd Keith studies heat planning and policy at the University of Arizona. He says it's worrying to see a program for planting trees get caught in the fight over DEI.
LADD KEITH: Not everything can be couched under a DEIA language kind of lens. And grants like this are part of the responsibility of the federal government to help communities advance their interest and their progress, right?
TESFAYE: Keith also says research shows trees return more financially than what you pay for them. The cancellation hit communities across the country. In Talent, Oregon, Mike Oxendine runs Our Community Forestry. The tiny nonprofit was promised $600,000 to replace canopy loss to major wildfires in 2020. He feels it doesn't make sense that this was cut.
MIKE OXENDINE: As an all-volunteer organization, you know, we're putting those dollars to the highest possible use. And the return on investment is so big.
TESFAYE: But Oxendine says they won't stop trying. He hopes the community support they gained while applying for the grant will help them raise money to keep planting.
For NPR News, I'm Eva Tesfaye in New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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