Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Sept. 14 that some Hudson Valley communities including Mount Vernon, White Plains, Yonkers, Hastings-on-Hudson and Kingston will be receiving more than $11 million in federal funds to plant thousands of new trees and expand youth education and job training programs. The idea is to help make the community greener through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program.
The money was included in the Inflation Reduction Act that Schumer played a key role in passing. The actual amount of funding allocated to the Hudson Valley for the green program is $11,459,838. The Inflation Reduction Act included more than $1 billion for the USDA spend nationwide on its greener community program.
The planting of trees is intended, in part, to combat heat islands in urban areas where heat builds up due to paved surfaces and dense construction.
“Investing in helping green spaces grow not only improves quality of life, it helps tackle systemic inequalities like urban heat islands, create cleaner air and so much more. Growing our green spaces is how you plant the seeds for a brighter future for communities that need it most in the Hudson Valley,” Schumer said. “Now a greener, healthier, and more equitable Hudson Valley can finally take root and blossom.”
The organization Groundwork Hudson Valley is due to receive $5,526,563 of the funding. Mount Vernon, White Plains, Yonkers, Port Jervis and the Village of Haverstraw each are due to receive $1 million. The City of Kingston in Ulster County is being given $500,000 while the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester receives $433,275.
Schumer said that the Groundwork Hudson Valley project would create a new program for high school students in Southwest Yonkers at the Barack Obama School for Social Justice. The students would get paid training and forestry experience through a new Urban Forestry & Climate Resilience Technical Career Pathway. The program would help give students real world experience while developing new skills in urban forestry. It eventually would connect them with the professional workforce development program in urban forestry at SUNY Westchester Community College.
