County Gets $1.5 Million for Urban Forestry

New trees planted in Gordon Park. Photo by Milwaukee County Parks.

Milwaukee County Parks is expanding its forestry work thanks to a $1.5 million federal grant.

“We’re essentially establishing another forestry crew, which is really exciting,” said Peter Bratt, parks director of operations and skilled trades.

Parks will use the grant to plant and maintain trees, improve its tree nursery, and remove stumps and dead trees. The funding will also cover depaving projects for the department when the area will be filled in with trees. The department plans to prune at least 3,000 trees over the life of the grant, Bratt said.

The parks department worked with the City of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and Milwaukee Public Schools to go after federal funding for urban forestry.

In April, the City of Milwaukee was awarded a $12 million urban forestry grant funded through the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It was the largest grant awarded to a city under the IRA urban and community forestry grants program.

It took a while for all the partners to figure out how much funding each government entity would receive and what projects they would pursue, as Urban Milwaukee previously reported. The grant was administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the federal agency notified them of the award before explaining the details.

Parks received a $1.5 sub-award as part of the grant that will be paid our over a five year period, boosting the work of its forestry crew, which has been fighting a battle against canopy loss countywide.

The department is responsible for approximately 15,000 acres of natural areas and 1.5 million trees. The emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle, has killed thousands of trees across the system. The department has removed more than 25,000 trees killed by the little bug, which first arrived in Milwaukee County less than two decades ago.

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Related Legislation: Parks forestry grant report