City’s tree-planting effort faces new uncertainty

Within a few weeks, Rochester forestry technicians will spread throughout the streets of the city for the last year of a three-year tree-planting blitz. In the first two years it has added more than 4,000 street trees to the city’s inventory, most of them in the northeast quadrant and other neighborhoods that previously were comparatively bare.

At some point after that, the city will submit a request for reimbursement to the federal government, part of a $3 million grant it received from the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program. What will happen to that request is far from certain.

Brian Liberti, city director of buildings and parks, says the city hasn’t heard directly about the grant being canceled, though some of his contacts at the Forest Service have been laid off as part of the Trump administration’s massive reductions of the federal workforce.

News reports from elsewhere in the country, though, show at least some federal money being pulled from urban forestry initiatives. They appear to have been targeted for termination as part of a nationwide attack on programs aimed at reducing racial disparities.

Liberti, City Forester Andrew Place and other members of Rochester’s forestry team were at the University of Rochester Medical Center Thursday to hear a presentation by Natasha DeJarnett, an assistant professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and one of the leaders of Green Heart Louisville, a broad initiative aimed at establishing a scientific link between nature—urban greenery in particular—and human health.

DeJarnett’s main research focus is the environmental contribution to cardiovascular disease. Air pollution causes at least seven million premature deaths worldwide each year, she said, and most of those can be attributed specifically to cardiovascular disease.

She came to that work through her family history. As a child growing up in Kentucky, she often traveled to see her grandparents in Birmingham, Ala. When there, her asthma—mostly under control at home—would surge.

“That made me ask myself: ‘Why can’t I breathe when I go to Birmingham?’” she said.

DeJarnett discovered the answer when she returned in graduate school to do a community health assessment. She realized that her grandparents’ neighborhood in North Birmingham was surrounded by steel mills, Superfund sites, an interstate highway and the airport. Those environmental factors cause current-day health disparities in residents, including higher rates of asthma and diabetes, low birth weight and a shorter life expectancy.

“No one should have to move for healthier air and healthier lives,” DeJarnett said. “This is why I work to equip decisionmakers and empower communities—to give voice to the voiceless.”

She described Green Heart Louisville as “a controlled trial where greenness is the intervention.” Initial research results show, for example, a reduction of nearly 20 percent in chronic inflammation for people living near newly planted mature trees and shrubs compared to those living farther away.

DeJarnett spent two years on the White House Council on Environmental Quality under the Biden administration, working on data evaluation related to environmental justice. That experience gives her a close perspective on the Trump administration’s abrupt change of direction.

“The last four years were a renaissance for environmental justice work and climate change work,” she said. “What I learned during my time at the White House is that disadvantaged communities can be prioritized.”

She emphasized the need for diversified funding sources, local leadership and creativity in carrying out environmental justice work.

“I don’t have the best words, and I’m in my feelings on some of this for obvious reasons,” she said. “But I’m really proud to be able to say to you that we can do it with a supportive administration, the support of federal agencies and the support of communities.”

Assuming its funding remains in place, the city of Rochester intends to plant 1,000 more trees this spring and another 1,000 in the fall, for a total of about 6,200 over three years. They have been distributed according to need in city neighborhoods with a goal of an 85 percent stocking rate everywhere. In other words, 85 percent of all available public tree-planting sites will have a tree in them.

The third year will likely prove the most challenging, Liberti says, since many of the most accessible sites—in front of vacant lots, industrial properties or public schools—have already been filled. The city now increasingly will look to plant in front of people’s houses, sometimes against those people’s wishes.

“We’re still kind of fighting that negative perception in some areas,” Liberti says. “As we get to the end of the project, those (easy) planting sites are becoming more scarce.”

About 5 percent of prospective tree plantings have been rejected by residents, he notes, a figure that likely will increase in 2025. But given the broader resistance facing environmental justice efforts like those in Rochester and Louisville, individual denials are not the greatest concern.

“As of today, we’re still funded,” Liberti says. “We’re going to keep going until we hear differently.”

Justin Murphy is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. He is the research and communications coordinator for Our Local History and a former reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle.

The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing  [email protected].