Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute is working with nine communities to improve their urban forests through two programs: urban green infrastructure and urban green governance.
Launched in 2019, the institute’s Resilience Cohort helps Indiana communities understand the local effects of climate change and implement climate adaptation strategies. ERI managing director Sarah Mincey said environmental challenges for towns are more high heat days, increased or decreased precipitation and longer and stronger storm events.
“Those environmental challenges really are hard for our communities, particularly because our communities, cities, and towns often lack resources and capacity to be able to build resilience to those changes that we're seeing,” Mincey said.
Participants in the urban green infrastructure program include Gary, Huntington, Lafayette, Logansport and South Bend. Urban green governance participants are Dearborn County, Lawrence, Richmond and Evansville.
The urban green infrastructure program is in its third year of helping cities increase the number of trees. A canopy cover assessment informs where trees need to be planted. A planting plan is developed and 100 trees are planted in each of the cities in the fall, Mincey said.
This program, funded through a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has planted 800 trees throughout Indiana communities. The trees are seven to eight feet tall when planted.
“When we create a larger area of shade and have that esthetic benefit of the tree, those health benefits improve as well,” she said. “So, if with one investment we can do all of that, that's a good investment in a time when we have to do more with less.”
This is the first year for the urban green governance program. Urban green governance, funded by Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources Community and Urban Forestry program, is focused on developing urban forest master plans for cities. These cities may be considering a tree protection ordinance or policies requiring developers to retain a certain amount of canopy cover, Mincey said. They can also need funding for urban forestry or ensuring the staff is educated and has proper resources.
“So our students are in these communities living there, bringing together community members in a stakeholder group to run workshops to learn what does the community want to do in terms of their urban forest in the next 10 to 20 years, and they're building out a master plan with a supervisor who is a part of the local government,” Mincey said.
