To celebrate Arbor Day, the Board of Commissioners joined Mayor Victor Carstarphen, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and the New Jersey Forest Service on Friday to announce the allocation of $8.7 million of Leafing Out grants to 10 New Jersey municipalities, including Camden City. The funds will be used to support urban and community forestry management and training programs for municipal employees in overburdened communities.
Each municipality was awarded $850,000 and the DEP Forest Service expects each grant to roughly be spent on:
- $50,000 for inventory and community forest management plan development
- $400,000 for tree-related maintenance activities
- $400,000 for tree planting.
“Too many times, urban communities are left without any sort of tree coverage, creating extreme heat and in turn, negatively impacting the lives of residents,” said Camden County Commissioner Jeffrey Nash. “With this grant, we can correct this long-standing problem and provide some relief to those who call Camden City their home. In order to mitigate the effects of climate change, all communities must be considered, and I am thankful that Camden is being considered a priority when it comes to expanding greenery in New Jersey.”
Funding for the grants is provided by the federal Inflation Reduction Act through the USDA Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program. The Leafing Out grants will fund the development of tree inventories and community forest management plans, urban forestry training, priority tree maintenance and hazard tree removals and tree plantings.