2024 Community & Urban Forestry Assistance

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is accepting applications for its 2024 Community & Urban Forestry Assistance (CUFA) Grant. Donor Name: Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) State: Indiana County: All Counties Type of Grant: Grant Deadline: (mm/dd/yyyy) 09/04/2024 Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000 Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned Details: This grant seeks to invest in the long-term growth and development of community forestry programs in Indiana to support: Expansion of urban tree canopy cover Preservation of existing urban tree canopy cover Increased and more equitable access to urban tree canopy and the health, environmental, and economic benefits associated with increased canopy Broadened community engagement in local urban forest planning. Improved resilience to climate change, pests, and storm events through best management and maintenance practices. Goals Your goals may include: To enhance residents’ quality of life in your city, village, town, township, or county. To establish, strengthen, and support a community urban forestry program. To promote urban forestry benefits through the properselection, planting, and care of trees. To establish a comprehensive tree inventory to enable local, data-driven decision-making. To promote risk management by properly assessing trees and developing mitigation plans. To restore diminished community tree canopy. To preemptively reduce your community’s ash or other susceptible tree populations to avoid inevitable future economic burdens borne by local government budgets in the aftermath of a pest invasion. To diversify the urban forest for long-term resilience and resistance to future pests. To ensure that your urban forest provides a variety of ecosystem services to your community. These include cleaner air, improved watershed health, reduced erosion, stormwater runoff, and reduced urban heat island effects. To address historic inequities in urban forestry policy and management which have been borne unevenly by certain groups or areas within your community. To adapt urban forest accessibility to changing community demographics. To promote the Indiana nursery industry through the local purchase of high-quality, native trees. To support Indiana arboriculture and landscape industries through management, planning, and tree removal, installation, and education. To enhance the built environment through increased property values, reduced energy demands, and enhanced aesthetics that offer year-round enjoyment and get people outdoors. Funding Information Your requests for project funds must be for a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $25,000. The overall level of funds available is $230,000. Tree Inventory or Urban Tree Canopy Assessment: The community may use this grant for the development and implementation of or the expansion of a community tree inventory or urban tree canopy assessment.  Management/Response Plan: The community may use this grant to cover expenses related to the creation or update of an urban forestry management or response plan. It can also be used to fund the development or the review and update of tree ordinances. Education/Training: The community may use this grant to cover the costs of educating and training the Project Coordinator, tree advisory groups, municipal staff, and local officials in the proper care of trees. Community Engagement & Tree Planting: Any tree planting project MUST include community engagement. If you already have a community engagement plan/program, please include it in your application. All grant recipients will work closely with the CUF team to develop a community engagement strategy that is unique to your community and its needs. The specifics of this strategy will develop as your project does but keep this requirement in mind as you complete this application. Tree plantings must take place on public property and may be used to fulfill management plan goals, address ecosystem improvements, and/or address inequities in access to green infrastructure. Note that 100% of the project trees must be species native to Indiana (exceptions can be made for establishments of urban food forest). Additionally, this grant cannot be used for the purchase of trees in the Acer genus (maples). Exceptions shall be made if a current inventory and management plan demonstrates your Acer population is less than 5% of the overall tree community. In that case, no more than 5% of the total grant project trees are to be of the genus Acer. All tree planting projects MUST include a maintenance plan with the grant application.  Other Activities: You may fund activities or other projects specific to urban forestry and/or arboriculture in your community. Examples include urban wood utilization, establishment of urban food forests, invasive species removal, establishment of a not-for-profit organization, and development and implementation of a community website specific to urban forestry. Eligibility Criteria  To be eligible for a grant, applicants must be a:  Municipality: As defined under IC 369-1-2 a municipality is a city, town, township, county, school corporation, library district, local housing authority, fire protection district, public transportation corporation, local building authority, local hospital authority or corporation, local airport authority, special service district, or other separate local government entities that may sue or be sued. It does not include special taxing districts. Non-profit 501(c)3: Organization as defined under IC 23-7-1.1. Non-profit organizations must include documentation of their not-for-profit status. For more information, visit DNR.