Milwaukee church saw opportunity to plant trees on empty land. Trump team saw DEI effort

USA Today

22-04-2025

Milwaukee church saw opportunity to plant trees on empty land. Trump team saw DEI effort
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Trump calls for end to DEI programs
President Donald Trump is calling for an end to federal diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs.
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Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church, in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood, was supposed to receive $28,000 in federal funds to plant 16 native trees on their property.
The neighborhood has few trees compared to other Milwaukee neighborhoods and lots of concrete surfaces, which absorb heat in the summertime and can make things feel hotter.
The nonprofit Faith in Place received $1.9 million from a Biden-era grant to the U.S. Forest Service to distribute to 59 groups across the upper Midwest to plant trees and create shade.
As the Trump administration reviews federal climate funds, these and others are stalled, leaving people who were set to start their projects in limbo.
This spring, Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood was going to get greener.
The church, which is heavily invested in protecting the environment, had secured nearly $28,000 to plant 16 native trees on its property with the hope of bringing more shade to the neighborhood. It was to be a small but important step toward making sure all city neighborhoods reap the health and environmental benefits trees provide, not just wealthier ones.
"We're in a very visible spot in Milwaukee," said Katharine Goray, the church's chair of projects and outreach ministries. "If we can create a ripple effect through other houses of faith and nonprofits, it would make a substantial difference and help balance that lack of green space."
Those plans are now on hold.
The money came from former President Joe Biden's sweeping climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act — money that President Donald Trump froze upon taking office and ordered agencies to review. With the review ongoing, Faith in Place, a Chicago nonprofit which received $1.9 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds for tree-planting work, can't pass on the funds it promised to groups across the upper Midwest.
That included the money for Solomon Community Temple.
Goray is adamant that the funding freeze won't stop the church from adding to the neighborhood's tree canopy. If the congregation can't plant 16 trees, she said, they can at least plant one.
But it will slow the work down — and with trees, which can take a decade or more to mature, time is of the essence.
Trees offer numerous benefits to people, environment
The grant money came from a $1.5 billion investment in urban tree-planting that the Biden administration announced in 2023 through the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the Department of Agriculture. It was part of Biden's Justice40 initiative, which mandated 40% of the benefits of certain environmental programs go to disadvantaged communities. Trump ended the Justice40 initiative in his purge of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the federal government.
Trees provide numerous benefits to the environment and to health, like filtering out air pollution, storing carbon dioxide and taking water into their root systems to reduce flooding. Tree cover also provides shade, keeping things cool during the summer heat. That helps combat the urban heat island effect, where an abundance of manmade surfaces like parking lots, sidewalks and streets absorb and hold onto heat and produce temperatures several degrees hotter than the overall temperature forecast.
More urban green space has even been tied to improved mental health, more active lifestyles and reduced crime and violence.
But not all neighborhoods have the same amount of tree cover. A 2021 study from the Nature Conservancy found that lower-income blocks had less tree cover than higher-income blocks in 92% of the cities surveyed. People of color are more likely to live in areas with more concrete and fewer trees because of discriminatory practices like redlining.
This is true in Milwaukee, one of the nation's most segregated cities, although organizations across the city have been working to increase tree cover in neighborhoods that need it most. That includes the Harambee neighborhood, which has a lack of trees and lots of impervious surfaces, Goray said.
The church has more control over its property than, say, a city park, Goray said, and its actions affect more than just one household. That's why it wanted to get involved in the effort.
"If every church or nonprofit or house of faith were even to plant a couple trees ... it would make Harambee much more livable and healthy," she said.
Uncertainty remains for church tree project
Fifty-nine faith and community groups in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana were to receive money from Faith in Place for tree-planting, education and maintenance, said Rev. Brian Sauder, Faith in Place's president and CEO.
The groups were excited to begin the work when the grants were announced in January, Sauder said. Contacting them to tell them the funds couldn't flow was devastating.
"In my 11 years being CEO of Faith in Place, I haven't had a situation where I committed to our partners, 'We're going to be able to provide this for you,' and haven't been able to follow through on that," Sauder said.
In mid-March, Faith in Place joined onto a lawsuit against the Trump administration by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group, alleging that the administration is illegally withholding funds from the Inflation Reduction Act that have already been appropriated by Congress.
Kira Dault, communications director for Faith in Place, said April 18 that the organization asked for an advance payment from the Forest Service for 25% of the funds for grantees who wanted to proceed with their projects. A majority of the grantees, including Solomon Community Temple, wanted to do so, even though whether they'll get any money at all is still uncertain.
"The goal is to provide funding for them to at least get trees in the ground," Dault said.
Goray said her initial reaction to hearing about what happened to the grant was despair, then anger. But now, she said, she's ready to move forward. Through a different grant, Solomon Community Temple will plant almost 500 native plants on its property this summer, she said, and continue other acts of environmental stewardship.
"If we don't do it," she said, "it's not going to get done."
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at [e-mail].