
DTE Energy, American Forests, Detroit Future City, and The Greening of Detroit were joined by the city of Detroit and the federal government to launch a joint initiative that will plant more than 75,000 trees, employ more than 300 Detroit residents in tree care and maintenance jobs, and invest $30 million in Detroit neighborhoods during the five-year pilot phase of the project.
The effort will deliver significant health, economic, and environmental benefits of a robust tree canopy across Detroit and will make the city’s neighborhoods more beautiful places to call home. This partnership accelerates previous tree planting efforts in Detroit focused on neighborhoods with the most need for improved tree canopies, while training and employing residents in the planting and maintenance of these trees.
“Detroit is at the forefront of a national movement to ensure there are trees in every part of every city, serving those who need them most,” says Jad Daley, president and CEO of American Forests.
“With extreme heat and flooding gripping our cities, trees are a cornerstone of improving the health, well-being, and sustainability of communities. This effort wouldn’t be possible without the long-term investment by key public and private partners and the city of Detroit’s deep commitment to tree equity.”
Though Detroit is making a commitment to tree equity, the story of need is the same in nearly every city across the U.S. With few exceptions, trees are sparse in neighborhoods with fewer resources and more prominent in wealthier ones.
Redlining policies dating back to the 1930s laid the groundwork for the tree inequity we see today between communities of color and white communities. Studies show neighborhoods that were redlined have fewer trees, leading to inequitable long-term outcomes that manifest themselves in diminished mental and physical health, extreme weather impacts, and lower civic pride and connections in these neighborhoods.
The Detroit Tree Equity Partnership will utilize data provided by American Forests’ Tree Equity Score tool, which measures canopy coverage across socioeconomic lines in U.S. cities. Though Detroit’s citywide score is 80 out of 100, a significant number of its neighborhoods fall below 60, with some scoring far lower. This gap can ultimately be closed by planting 416,000 medium-sized shade trees in these neighborhoods.
The city of Detroit was one of the first cities to make a commitment to American Forests’ 1t.org U.S. Chapter initiative, aimed at helping restore, conserve and protect 1 trillion trees globally by 2050.
“Inequity has existed in communities of color in a lot of different ways for a long time, and one of them has been something as basic as the number of trees in our neighborhoods,” says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “It may seem like a small thing, but having a tree canopy can affect air quality and asthma rates, air-conditioning costs, flood resilience and more.
“Detroit, at one point, was a city of trees, but lost too many of them to disease, insects, and age. Thanks to this tremendous partnership with DTE and American Forests, we are going to take a big step toward restoring our tree canopy while creating employment opportunity for Detroiters in the process.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supporting this partnership with a $485,000 award made earlier this summer.
As one of the key local organizations involved in this partnership, The Greening of Detroit will train individuals who face significant barriers to employment for jobs in urban forestry, arboriculture, and nursery care through its Detroit Conservation Corps (DCC) program. It will also help plan tree planting projects and manage the up to 40 DCC graduates that the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership plans to hire.
The full list of partners and supporters for the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership continues to grow, and currently includes American Forests, Bank of America, Carhartt, City of Detroit, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Detroit Future City, Detroit Zoological Society, DTE Energy, Erb Family Foundation, The Greening of Detroit, Wayne State University, AmeriCorps Urban Safety Program, and others.
“Restoring Detroit’s tree canopy is strongly aligned with Detroit Future City’s 2030 agenda and goals for the city — strengthening neighborhoods, improving public health outcomes and productively re-purposing vacant space, all of which contribute to better social and economic equity and climate resiliency,” says Anika Goss, CEO of Detroit Future City.