Boston gets greener with $11M federal grant for urban forestry, green spaces

Environmentalists in Boston are rejoicing as the city’s most tree-deprived neighborhoods are set to become a whole lot greener.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey has secured $11 million in the federal funding that will be pumped toward enhancing urban forestry and access to green spaces across Chinatown, East Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury. The city’s allotment is included in a $22 million pool for the entire Bay State.

The funding comes after the city teamed up with Mass Audubon in the spring to spearhead a coalition dedicated to providing resources to residents who have trees growing on their properties but might not be aware of how to properly care for them.

Markey celebrated the funding alongside Mayor Michelle Wu and members of the green jobs program, PowerCorpsBOS, at Franklin Park on Friday.

The city’s tree canopy and green spaces are unevenly distributed across its neighborhoods, a result of “systemic disinvestment,” the senator said. The funding will address heat and flooding, decrease noise pollution, purify the air and provide natural spaces for the community, he said.

“But today, we can turn over a new leaf,” Markey said. “This funding will bring shade and solutions to the neighborhoods that need them the most. These urban heat islands lacking the tree canopy that helps keep things cool on a hot day have been at the back of the line for investment for far too long.”

Specifically, the funding will allow PowerCorps to hire a program director and manager, both with arborist backgrounds, and train two cohorts of 50 participants each year. Seven new positions will be created in the Parks and Recreation Department, as well, officials say.

In the first two cohorts of the green jobs program created under Wu’s Green New Deal, 73 participants have graduated, gaining a skill set in identifying native and invasive plants, environmental conservation and parks maintenance, said Davo Jefferson, the executive director of PowerCorps.

Going forward, the federal funding will help create an urban forestry track, Jefferson said. Participants – 18-to-30-year-old city residents with a high school diploma – will learn proper chainsaw use, safety training with equipment, advanced tree and shrub identification, and how to properly recycle wood.

Participants will also see increased benefits and incentives for taking part in the program.

“While the change of climate change is daunting, there are moments like today that highlight our ability to come together and work towards multiple goals at once,” Jefferson said.

The park around White Stadium in Boston could see some of the new funding for an urban forest. (Jim Michaud/ Boston Herald)

Such training is on the rise across the country.

Late last month, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the American Climate Corps, an initiative that looks to train 20,000 young people by the end of the next year in various climate- and environment-related fields.

“We are getting a lot of competition from other cities who are watching our program,” Wu said, “and as soon as graduation happens, they make offers and try to hire everyone away. There is so much need for this kind of training and skill set.”