Sponsors (9)
Creates a USDA‑administered Neighborhood Tree Fund to finance community tree canopy projects with priority for low‑income and heat‑impacted neighborhoods and authorizes staged deposits for FY2025–FY2029.
Official title: To amend the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 to provide States and communities with additional assistance to plant and maintain trees, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 23, 2026 by Shontel M. Brown · Last progress April 23, 2026
The bill directs multi-year federal investments to expand urban tree canopy and target historically underserved communities—delivering health, economic, and environmental-justice gains—while increasing taxpayer costs and imposing ongoing local maintenance, administrative, and eligibility trade-offs.
Low-income residents and historically underserved urban neighborhoods will receive prioritized tree planting and maintenance that reduces urban heat exposure and improves local air quality, helping narrow health and environmental justice disparities.
States, tribes, and local communities gain multi-year federal funding and investment that enables planning, sustained canopy expansion, and ongoing maintenance activities.
Residents in priority communities (and homeowners nearby) could benefit economically through new local jobs and workforce training, higher property values from more canopy, and lower household cooling costs from increased shade.
Taxpayers will face increased federal spending over the FY2025–FY2029 period (billions over five years), which could raise taxes or require offsetting cuts elsewhere in federal spending.
Local governments and homeowners may incur ongoing municipal maintenance, infrastructure conflict remediation, and potential liability or insurance costs associated with expanded tree planting and care.
State, tribal, and local applicants — and some communities — could face significant administrative burdens, constrained upfront planning due to a 10% assessment cap, and exclusion if they don't meet competitive poverty/heat/agroforestry criteria, limiting equitable access.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federally administered Neighborhood Tree Fund to support planting, maintaining, and improving urban and community tree canopy, with priority for low-income, historically redlined, and heat‑impacted neighborhoods. Sets program requirements for community engagement, climate‑informed project design, and ongoing maintenance, and authorizes scheduled annual deposits from FY2025–FY2029 to capitalize the Fund. Also updates advisory council membership rules to add three non‑governmental members with urban forestry expertise, including required residency in a small town and a low‑income community.