The Urban Trees Grant Program is designed to green communities; enhance quality of life, human health, and community livability by improving air quality and reducing urban heat island effect; and mitigate some of the effects of climate change.
Donor Name: Chesapeake Bay Trust
State: Maryland
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/06/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The Urban Trees Grant Program, called for by the Maryland General Assembly as a component of a 5,000,000-tree goal by 2031, welcomes requests for tree planting projects in urban, underserved communities. This initiative will empower communities that have felt disenfranchised to gain better access to resources that support local improvements.
Phases
- Phase I: Planning and Outreach
- For projects to be successful, the people who live in, work in, own property around, and need access to the sites should welcome the trees and help ensure their long-term sustainability. Trees planted in areas in which they are not welcomed face higher risk of vandalism, lack of maintenance, and even removal. Leads of projects involving work on a small number of sites must have landowner support for the project prior to application, such that funding is not allocated to projects that risk not being able to be completed. Leads of projects involving work on multiple properties will ultimately need numerous permissions and approvals.
- Phase II: Implementation (Tree Planting)
- Because trees in the ground is the key metric of this grant program, all project proposals must include a tree planting implementation phase. Your project may include site preparation activities such as stump removal, soil amendment, installation of tree guards, and the removal of trash and invasive.
- Phase III: Maintenance
- Because tree planting projects that are not maintained, especially urban tree planting projects, are at risk of not persisting into the future, all requests to the Urban Trees Grant Program must include a written maintenance plan that describes at least two years of maintenance by the project leads. If project leads are doing work on land owned by someone else, permission and support for the maintenance phase by the landowner must be demonstrated in the proposal. If you do not have the capacity to provide maintenance for two years, you may either work with a partner who will take on the two-year post-planting maintenance, or find a partner to submit the proposal and take the lead on the project with you as a partner.
Funding Information
There will be no maximum request; however, requests will generally be at the following scales:
- Up to $15,000 for projects serving a single small neighborhood (on the order of 25 to 100 trees)
- Up to $45,000 for projects serving multiple neighborhoods within a community (on the order of 75 to 300 trees)
- Up to $200,000 for projects serving multiple communities (on the order of 300 to 1,000 trees)
- Up to $1,000,000 for projects serving communities across an entire county-scale (on the order of 2,000 to 6,000 trees).
Grant Period
The planning and implementation phases of projects will typically be completed within 12 months upon receipt of the award followed by a required two years of maintenance.
Eligible Project Expenses
Proposals to the Urban Tree Grant Program may request costs from two categories of funding detailed below.
- Costs Associated Directly with Tree Planting Activities
- Funds in this category may be used for supplies, site preparation, personnel costs, and other expenses and materials related to planning, implementing, and maintaining tree planting projects in underserved areas (as per statute), and elements of all three of those stages (planning, implementing, and maintaining) must be included in each project proposal. Specific eligible expenses in this category include those in the categories of project readiness (outreach and engagement activities to identify sites and engage residents/landowners); site readiness (tree pit creation, stump removal, etc.); tree planting (costs of trees, labor to plant the trees, tree shelters, mulch, and other materials); and tree maintenance. Funds in this category cannot be used for food or other plant material. If you plan to sub-contract work (e.g., hire an entity to plant or water the trees), the Trust recommends that you solicit estimates from at least three consultants or contractors. There is no maximum request for funds in this category. Funds in this category are provided by the State of Maryland and governed by statute.
- Cost Per Tree
- To attempt to accomplish the ultimate goal of planting 500,000 trees in underserved urban areas within nine years, they ask that applicants limit their costs wherever possible (though request enough for a successful implementation project).
- Costs Associated with Community Needs that Indirectly Support Greening Activities
- Applicants pursuing tree planting projects through this grant program may request a limited amount of funds for expenses not directly related to tree planting activities as listed above but for activities related to community needs associated with the spaces that cannot be supported by State funds
Eligible Project Types
Projects selected for funding must be fully or significantly focused on planting trees. Tree planting projects can occur on sites including, but not limited to:
- Streets and rights of way
- Vacant lots
- Institutional grounds
- Open space.
Eligible Locations
Tree planting projects proposed as part of this program must occur in urban, underserved areas, defined in Section 8–1911 of the Natural Resources Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland as:
- An urban area, as delineated by the United States Census Bureau AND
- An area that meets ONE or more of the following criteria:
- Historic disenfranchisement: A neighborhood that was, at any point in time, redlined or graded as “hazardous” by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation; OR
- Unemployment: A census tract with an average rate of unemployment for the most recent 24- month period for which data are available that exceeds the average rate of unemployment for the State; OR
- Household income: A census tract with a median household income for the most recent 24- month period for which data are available that is equal to or less than 75% of the median household income for the state of Maryland during that period; OR
- Housing project: A housing project as defined in Section 12-101 of the Housing and Community Development Article.
Eligibility Criteria
The Trust and the funding partners welcome requests from the following applicants:
- Nonprofit organizations
- Schools
- Community or neighborhood associations
- Service, youth, or civic groups
- Institutions of higher education
- Counties and municipalities
- Forest conservancy district boards.
For more information, visit Chesapeake Bay Trust.
