A multi-million-dollar federal grant will help restore and enhance thousands of trees in southeast Colorado Springs, improving the environment, beautifying the area and enriching community well-being, parks and forestry officials said Friday.

“Understanding the health benefits associated with the tree canopy, and being able to have that nature close by and within your immediate area … is a great comparison to what this grant is going to be able to provide to a much greater area within southeast Colorado Springs,” said Kim King, assistant director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is awarding Colorado Springs’ forestry division a $9 million grant officials will use over the next five years to “improve the health and condition of the tree canopy” in more than 12,000 trees in southeast Colorado Springs and in areas adjacent to downtown, including the Stratton Meadows, Hillside, Meadows Park, Mill Street and a portion of the Knob Hill neighborhoods, they said.

Those parts of town, with lots of pavement, buildings and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat, are what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes as “urban heat islands” that increase energy costs, air pollution and heat-related illnesses and deaths.

city of Colorado Springs urban tree project map 2024-2029Courtesy of the city of Colorado Springs

The southeast part of town is the driest and has some of the poorest soils, city forester Dennis Will said, so there are fewer trees there than in other parts of the city. Trees in the area need to be irrigated to stay alive.

The project area meets federal criteria defining it as economically disadvantaged and/or has poorer environmental health than other sections of Colorado Springs, grant writer Stephanie Surch said.

Nine million dollars in grant funds – the largest dollar amount awarded to any of the eight Colorado cities that received the grant – is a “significant” amount of money that will go a long way toward improving the tree canopy in this area, Will said. In comparison, city forestry’s annual budget is about $3.1 million.

Officials will use the grant funds to hire two foresters who will work exclusively in the identified project area, taking inventory of the tree canopy and determining which trees need to be pruned or removed.

The city will then hire contractors to prune and remove existing trees as well as plant about 600 new trees in the project area.

Officials want to partner with neighborhood residents to plant trees in locations where they are more likely to survive, such as on private property rather than in rights of way that aren’t irrigated, Will said.

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The city could also plant new trees in neighborhood parks and open spaces, he said.

“We think … getting the community involved, having a vested interest as well, will help change that cycle of planting trees in non-irrigated areas and them not surviving,” Will said.

More trees in these communities will provide several benefits for the residents living and recreating there, he said.

Trees shade homes and reduce the amount of energy needed to cool them down in the summer; they protect homes from wind by slowing the breeze, therefore slowing the cooling effect during winter; they provide aesthetic beauty; they absorb pollution from the atmosphere; and they serve as wildlife habitats, among other benefits, Will said.

Officials will work with neighborhood partners such as CONO (the Council of Neighbors and Organizations) and various community centers to educate residents on the benefits of having more trees in the area and how to maintain them.

“That’s something (the city forestry division) has been lacking over the last 10 years or so,” Will said. “I’m really looking forward to that component.”

Colorado Springs’ forestry division manages about 300,000 urban street trees and 20,000 park trees. The city has been a Tree City USA community since 1977, longer than any other Colorado community.

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