Healthy Tree Canopy grants awarded in 2022
In September 2022, the county board awarded 20 Healthy Tree Canopy grants totaling about $390,600. Grant projects will take place in seven cities, on four affordable housing properties, at two schools, and through six nonprofit organizations, including congregations and neighborhood associations. More than 435 trees will be planted through the grant projects.
The grants will:
- Fund the collection of data through tree inventories, which is critical to increasing and diversifying the tree canopy and starting to respond to emerald ash borer.
- Address the impacts of tree pests and pathogens by improving city forestry capacity and treating or replacing and replanting ash trees that are threatened by emerald ash borer. Grantees are required to plant at least one replacement tree for every ash tree removed.
- Educate residents on the benefits of trees and engage them in tree planting efforts.
- Improve livability and reduce disparities by planting trees in neighborhoods throughout the county experiencing disproportionate amounts of economic, environmental, and health inequities.
- Protect people and increase the county’s resilience to climate change – important goals in the county’s Climate Action Plan – by increasing the benefits that trees provide. These benefits include capturing carbon, reducing air pollution, and taking up stormwater, and providing shade to counteract the urban heat island effect.
Grants awarded to cities
Grants to cities fund tree inventories, help mitigate the effects of tree pests and pathogens, increase the capacity of city forestry programs, educate residents on the benefits of trees and engage them in tree planting efforts, and improve livability by planting trees in neighborhoods that face economic, environmental, and health disparities.
Brooklyn Park
$50,000 to remove and replace 38 ash trees, stock gravel bed with bareroot trees, conduct EAB education, and hold volunteer tree planting events.
Champlin
$25,630 to remove and replace 45 ash trees.
Crystal
$50,000 to remove 15 ash trees and plant 45 replacement trees.
Eden Prairie
$40,093 to create education signage, remove and replace 60 ash trees.
Excelsior
$42,500 to create an urban forestry management plan and emerald ash borer management plan, treat ash trees, and plant trees via contractors and volunteers.
New Hope
$37,000 to purchase forestry equipment, remove and replace at least 20 ash trees.
Orono
$5,000 to complete a public tree inventory.
Grants awarded to affordable housing providers
Grants to affordable housing providers promote a more diverse, resilient, and equitable tree canopy by removing and replacing ash trees and planting new trees.
Aeon
$20,000 to remove at least four ash trees and to plant 10 replacement trees in Richfield.
Boisclair Corporation
$17,980 to remove 16 ash trees at PennPlace in Bloomington and plant 16 replacement trees.
Cedar Riverside Limited Partnership
$11,930 to plant 24 trees to enhance a park-like greenspace at Cedar Riverside Apartments in Minneapolis, and support residents to maintain the trees.
Little Earth Residents Association Inc.
$11,650 to plant and maintain 10 trees in the Little Earth community in Minneapolis.
Grants awarded to nonprofit organizations and schools
Grants to nonprofit organizations and schools are used to engage communities in planting trees, remove and replace ash trees, conduct tree-related education, complete tree inventories, and hold Arbor Day celebrations.
The Blake School
$20,000 to remove 33 ash trees, treat 14 ash trees, and plant 34 replacement trees in two projects (Hopkins and Minneapolis campuses).
Dayton Community Foundation
$3,096 to hold an Arbor Day celebration event in the city of Dayton
FamilyWise Services
$6,380 to plant 10 trees in continuation of stormwater and raingarden infrastructure in Minneapolis.
Gethsemane Lutheran Church
$9,341 to remove four ash trees and plant 6 replacement trees in Hopkins.
Special School District 1
$10,000 to plant 50 trees across six different Minneapolis school properties.
Tree Trust
$10,000 to hold a series of educational tree events across Hennepin County.
Vibrant and Safe Downtown
$10,000 to plant 30 trees in Minneapolis, conduct outreach and engagement, and create an educational video about the project.
YMCA of the North
$10,000 to engage with campers and plant trees to diversify the tree canopy on its campgrounds in Minnetrista and Loretto.