"A program was trying to mitigate the loss of 200,000 trees to Hurricane Katrina."

"A sudden surge in tree planting across New Orleans has come to an even more sudden halt.

When President Donald Trump issued a series of orders that froze billions of dollars in federal climate funding late last month, he also slammed the brakes on the most ambitious replanting initiative in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina wiped out more than 200,000 trees across the city. The blocked funding could also spell the end of the nonprofit group spearheading the restoration of New Orleans’ tree canopy, which has suffered an almost 30 percent decrease over the past 20 years.

“Overnight, our operations were paralyzed,” said Susannah Burley, executive director of Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, also known as SOUL Nola. “We can’t afford to wait this out. We only have enough funding to keep operating until mid-April.”

Former president Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, earmarked $1.5 billion for urban and community-based forestry initiatives across the nation, an amount the U.S. Forest Service called a “historic level of investment.” The money was directed to hundreds of nonprofits, schools, and city and state governments. A large share of the funding is now in doubt."

Tristan Baurick reports for Verite News in partnership with Grist February 13, 2025. [2]