Middletown awarded $300,000 grant to green up neighborhoods and preserve urban canopy

“Middletown is a designated Tree City USA community, and this grant allows us to achieve our goals of restoring natural beauty to our city’s parks and public areas,” Scott Tadych, Middletown director of public works, said. “We are excited by the opportunity presented to Middletown through this grant as we continue to commit to enhancing the quality of life in the city.”

Tree City USA is a national recognition program that began greening up cities in 1976. It’s sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and National Association of State Foresters.

Middletown has been recognized as a Tree City USA community for 14 years, every year since 2007, and also received a growth award each year since 2018.

Middletown’s proposed projects for the grant include a city-wide public tree inventory and risk assessment, and the development of an urban forestry management plan.

All “on-the-ground” public tree projects proposed by the grant will take place in the 13 underserved census tracts within city limits as identified by the federal Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool. That tool looked at a number of factors including the existing tree canopy cover to life span expectancy to health conditions in the census tracts when determining the areas.

Tadych said many of the areas identified are in the city’s western and southern areas in older parts of the city. But a city-wide inventory and risk assessment will be conducted, which was a priority for the grant.

After that assessment is completed, they will work to get rid of trees that are high risk, begin pruning both young and old trees as well and new planting with the goal of “one-to-one replant,” said Ali Manning, natural resources coordinator.

The work will take place on all public property and right of ways, which is the city’s responsibility.

Projects include addressing high-risk trees through removal and pruning, new tree plantings for each tree removed tree, and pruning and training of young and mature trees. Projects must be completed by April 1, 2028.