Project Re-Leaf: Iowa communities can apply for grants to plant trees

(Story by Radio Iowa)

It’s been a tough few years for Iowa’s tree canopy, between terrible tornadoes, derechoes, and killer insects like the emerald ash borer wiping out tens of thousands of trees. Chip Murrow, an urban forestry program specialist at the Iowa D-N-R, says the agency’s offering 900-thousand dollars in grants for Iowa communities to plant trees, as well as staking, mulching and watering. The grants do not require matching funds and are being awarded in amounts of between 10- and 30-thousand dollars per community. Murrow says the trees to be planted have to come from the D-N-R’s list of approved species, which is on the agency’s website. He says a group of Iowa foresters created the list of about 85 species, from the black maple to the Serbian spruce. The deadline to apply is December 30th. Learn more at the Iowa D-N-R’s Urban Forestry website.