OLYMPIA — Three Basin communities will benefit from state and federal grants to revitalize their greenery, as part of the Washington State Department of Forestry’s Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program.

Othello, Ritzville and Coulee Dam were among the 45 recipients of the grant, according to an announcement from Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz.

The city of Othello will receive $81,500 from the federal government to plant approximately 109 trees in P.J. Taggares Park, to provide shade canopy and wind protection, according to the announcement.

The city of Ritzville will use its $346,000 state and federal grant to hire a consultant to serve as the project manager to review and develop community forestry policies, plans and manuals, in addition to a developed landscape and tree planting plan, according to the announcement. Current vegetation will be accounted and cared for and education will be provided to staff and community members to enhance community engagement. 

A federal grant of $71,180 will enable the town of Coulee Dam to restore and enhance Ferry Avenue’s tree canopy, the announcement said. Street trees were removed unexpectedly during a sidewalk replacement project in 2023. New street trees will be planted with additional mitigation measures to minimize the risk of sidewalk upheaval occurring again.  

The total dollar amount of the grants is 14 times bigger than the previous single-year record of $550,000 and is nearly three times the total grants awarded by the Department of Natural Resources for urban and community forestry projects since 2008, according to the announcement. DNR received 122 applications requesting more than $23.5 million. Due to the overwhelming number of applications, more than half of which came from areas of poor environmental health and low tree equity, DNR chose to allocate an additional $1 million of Climate Commitment funding into the grant program, increasing its share to $3 million. The remaining $5 million is Inflation Reduction Act money awarded to DNR by the USDA Forest Service in 2023.

The number of grant applications that focused on equity and environmental justice marks a paradigm shift in how Washington approaches urban and community forestry. DNR only received one equity-focused UCF grant application in 2019; staff reviewed more than 65 applications with an emphasis on equity and environmental justice for this offering.

Neighborhoods with adequate tree canopy cover can be as much as 14 degrees cooler during heat waves, according to the announcement. Where there is heat, there is death, such as when more than 100 people lost their lives in the 2021 heat dome.

“Access to clean air, shade, and green spaces should be a basic human right, but the fact is that throughout our state, lower-income communities and communities of color more often live in neighborhoods with more concrete and asphalt, and too few trees,” Franz wrote in the announcement. “We need to bring the same urgency we brought to our wildfire crisis to our efforts to ensure everyone lives in neighborhoods with adequate tree canopy. Trees and tree equity are essential for our quality of life. As temperatures rise and economic disparities widen, trees are no longer a nice-to-have, they are a must-have.”