De Pere tree grant defunded

DE PERE — More than 100 residents who signed up for free trees to replace their ash street trees will receive letters of regret, instead.

The grant that paid for the trees, through a cooperative arrangement between NEW Water and the Great Lakes Water Restoration Initiative, has been paused due to uncertainty regarding its funding.

The news forced De Pere Common Council this week to vote to discontinue the program.

“This is unfortunate, but it’s really the only thing we can do,” Alderperson Jonathon Hansen said. “I think it is a good example of the impact that cuts at the federal level can have downstream.”

He said NEW Water is still “very committed to the program.”

“If they can get assurances that the forestry service will reimburse them at some point, hopefully, whether it’s later this year or next year, we can get the program up and running again,” he said. “But at this time, we’re kind of boxed-in.”

Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Marty Kosobucki said residents can still purchase trees at a discounted rate of $155 each.

De Pere was to receive 250 trees as part of an effort to reduce the amount of runoff that drains into the Fox River and bay of Green Bay.

Kosbucki said dozens were planted on residents’ terraces last fall and spring, and the city had not submitted an invoice for reimbursement for the calendar year yet.

He said NEW Water informed him last month that the funding freeze applied to trees planted last fall, so the city immediately submitted a reimbursement request, and NEW Water compensated the city $5,800 for the trees.

“But that was just NEW Water being generous,” Hansen said. “It was their own money that they reimbursed us with — it didn’t come from the federal level.”
Hundreds of ash trees were removed throughout the city over the past decade due to the emerald ash borer.

Starting last spring, trees were planted in spring and fall.

The city initially offered the free replacement trees to those who had lost two or more ash street trees.

Those who had just one removed didn’t qualify until after the city opened the offer to those who had lost a single tree.

The deadline to apply for this year’s tree plantings hadn’t even closed yet; residents had until March 21 to apply.

Kosobucki said as of Tuesday, 111 people had applied for the latest round of trees, and he expected a few more requests would roll in by the deadline, only to be told the program had to end.

Trees offered were one- to two-inch diameter saplings. Residents had their choice of hackberry, Kentucky coffee tree, tulip tree, ironwood, turkish filbert, skyline honey locust, greenspire linden, triumph elm, and ivory silk Japanese lilac.

The grant included $31,500 for the labor involved in planting and caring for the trees until they were established.

In addition to De Pere, other nearby communities that participated in the program included Bellevue, Howard, Hobart, Pulaski and Ledgeview, for a total of 1,860 trees.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative estimated that the 1,860 trees would have resulted in 372,000 fewer gallons per year of runoff in rivers, lakes, and streams.

Mayor James Boyd said the city would be contacting representatives at the federal level to voice displeasure at the defunding of the program.