Trees climb up cities' priority lists after getting a $1.5 billion boost in federal climate...

A major surge in climate resilience funding is allowing urban forestry departments to focus on trees. About $1.5 billion of funding will be invested in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program.
Driving along the Rock River, Mitch Leatherbie, a street superintendent for the city of Rockford, Illinois, spots a pair of trees he considers survivors.

“There's two ash trees, right, they're still standing,” said Leatherbie. “... Those were just a couple of them that we kept.”

In the early 2000s, Rockford lost approximately 5,000 ash trees to the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle. The beetle was first identified in Michigan in 2002 and has since killed tens of millions of ash trees across the country.

The pest left a lasting impression on urban forest managers.