Deadline: 16-Apr-21
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Forest Service is seeking applications for the 2021 Urban and Community Foresty Challenge Cost Share Grant Program.
The USDA Forest Service Urban & Community Forestry (U&CF) Program restores, sustains, and manages more than 140 million acres of urban and community forest lands for the benefit of communities in the United States. Healthy urban & community forests and green infrastructure are not only critical to all nation’s forests, but also essential to the economic, environmental, physical, and mental well-being of population. Increasingly, the urban and community forests are facing threats such as insects, diseases, extreme weather events and other hazards.
Additionally, the lack of investment in urban forest disaster mitigation is contributing to community disasters such as urban flooding and human heat deaths in cities– disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. New systemic solutions are needed to create and enhance green infrastructure in the right place and at the right scale and encompass pressing social, economic, ecological, and historic factors holistically.
Categories
- Increasing Resiliency of Urban Forests through Reforestation and Management: The USDA Forest Service seeks innovative grant proposals for establishing climate resilient tree species in urban and community forests that are resistant to impacts of invasive pathogens, pests, and severe weather events. Applicants should consider long-term forest health as it aligns with species of choice, diversity, and genetic variation. Consider which species have proven as the most problematic over the last 20 years and which species have been the most reliable, problem-free and can withstand the climate impacts. Genetic diversity within a species will depart from single genotype cultivars, which may be aesthetically pleasing in the short-term, but offer less resilience as a biotic and abiotic events/agents factor into survival in the future and help to adapt to climate change by reducing exposures to future hazards, like increased heat waves or flooding.
- Planning Disaster Mitigation Strategies for Urban Forests: The USDA Forest Service seeks innovative grant proposals for the critical management of the existing and future urban and community forests to promote disaster risk reduction and community resilience and better prepare communities for the increasingly destructive impacts of climate change. With a focus on environmental justice communities, where suitable tree installations can provide equitable access to shade, reduce heat exposure, improve air quality, and reduce storm water flooding, solutions should bring together community members, planners, local and state government officials, urban foresters and resilience and sustainability professionals and may include, but are not limited to, prevention, planning, policy, preparedness, implementation, demonstrated best management and maintenance practices, uniform standards, risk mitigation, recovery, social equity, and reforestation.
Funding Information
- Grant awards will range between $100,000 – $300,000.
- Time to complete these grants averages 2-3 years, up to 5 years with approval.
- The grant process may take between 4-6 months.
Eligibility Criteria
Non-Profits, educational institutions of higher learning, any U.S. non-federal and federally recognized Tribal Organization that is operating within the United States or its territories, and state organizations representing multi-state or national proposals are eligible.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=331183