Evansville Forest Alliance to begin strategic tree planting in disinvested communities
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Strategic tree planting will start in Tepe Park this fall as part of the Evansville Forest Alliance’s three-year initiative to increase canopy in underserved neighborhoods.
“This is the beginning of something transformational for Evansville,” said Zach Garcia, executive director of Wesselman Woods.
The alliance—which includes Wesselman Woods, city arborist Shawn Dickerson, city climate director Lauren Norvell, Community One and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources—launched last month. The group was awarded a $249,000 grant from DNR’s Community & Urban Forestry Department, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service through the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We have funding for around 600 trees,” said Garcia. “But we want to plant as many trees as possible.”
“This year is going to be the start,” Dickerson added. “The following two years are when we’re really going to plant a lot of the trees. It will be interesting seeing where we go after this year.”
The alliance aims to establish denser and healthier urban canopies in disadvantaged and low-income communities.
“A lot of trees have been cut down or completely removed because they weren’t healthy anymore, and they were going to cause significant damage,” said Jessica Welcher, executive director of Community One, a not-for-profit focused on neighborhood transformation. “When that happens, that leaves these voids in the urban canopy.”
Members of the alliance said adding more trees in these areas will address issues such as air pollution, stormwater management, high temperatures and costly utilities.
“Those are the citizens who need the most refuge from extreme heat days because their homes are often inefficient,” said Norvell. “In those neighborhoods, they’re going to have higher energy bills. They may not be able to afford to run their air conditioning nonstop to counter the heat.”
“By focusing on underserved neighborhoods that have been disenfranchised for decades, we are making an effort to help boost the health of the people in those neighborhoods and create more of an equitable approach to climate action,” added Derek Walsh, director of natural resources and research at Wesselman Woods.
Getting started in Tepe Park
Garcia said the alliance decided to begin the project in Tepe Park because of Community One’s involvement with the neighborhood.
“[Wesselman Woods] reached out when they were pursuing this grant because they knew that for it to be truly successful, it has to be something that residents want and that they’re excited about,” said Welcher. “They felt like that would be a great connection to pilot it on the ground where there’s already a group of residents really engaged and focused, and then with the lead agency backbone to be able to help staff the work that needed to be done.”
Jacob Roos, urban forestry director for the DNR, said the trees planted in the Tepe Park neighborhood will offer much more than climate and beautification benefits.
“There are multiple studies on how trees reduce stress. Crime rates are reduced after tree plantings or in areas with more green spaces or higher areas of tree canopy,” said Roos. “There’s nothing that gives more and asks for less in return than a tree does.”
Dickerson agreed, saying a shady tree on a hot summer day can bring people together and improve social well-being in the community.
“The more people talk, the more they get to know each other … they’re going to be less prone to be violent or ignorant of each other. People just get along better, become more interwoven,” he said.
The alliance plans to help neighbors plant trees in Tepe Park while encouraging them to become environmental stewards.
“We will be educating residents on proper tree care, maintenance, how to plant a tree, how to care for a tree,” said Walsh.
Dickerson said helping neighbors plant trees in their surroundings empowers them to become more active in their community.
“This is change that’s being done through them, not to them,” Welcher added. “And that’s always the best way to help any area.”
Future neighborhoods
Roos said the environmental impact of the trees planted in Tepe Park this fall will intensify year after year.
“With the carbon sequestration and storm and rainwater absorption, as time goes on and as the trees that are planted grow and become larger, the benefits they provide are increased. The larger the tree is, the more rainwater and stormwater absorption they can do per year,” he said.
After the Tepe Park project, Goosetown and Jacobsville are potential candidates for future tree planting. Garcia said the alliance will work with neighborhood association presidents and other community groups in specific census tracts to determine where to go next.
“We’re going to take this spring and summer to hone in on when we’re going to have neighborhood meetings, when we’re going to have tree planting trainings and then the tree planting seasons themselves,” he said.
Dickerson said his department also applied for an Indiana University Resilience Cohort grant to conduct a city-wide canopy assessment.
“The idea is to have that cohort communicate with us regarding what we’re doing now in Tepe Park and expand that. Hopefully, that cohort can help us develop a lot of connections between all the neighborhoods and other groups that we don’t even know about and expand our planting areas in the future after this year,” he said.
Roos encouraged other Indiana communities interested in starting initiatives like the Evansville Forest Alliance to apply for the second round of funding from the DNR later this year.
“Just go to our website and sign up for email notifications for our newsletter. You should be able to stay up to date on everything we announce,” he said.