The Reno City Council this week accepted a $500,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to plant trees along Airway Drive. The funds are available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Some federal grants require matching funds to be provided by the grantee, but the city was able to procure a match waiver based on the project site. The waiver allowed the city to accept the money without providing the previously required 1:1 match, which would have cost the city $250,000. However, because the area selected is categorized as a disadvantaged area with a higher utility burden and heat index, no match was required.
The trees will be planted along a one-mile stretch of Airway Drive from Neil Road to Longley Lane, along the southwest edge of the airport. Because of the site’s proximity to the airport, the city worked with the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority to select trees that would not attract large birds of prey, including fruit and nut trees, which may disrupt airport operations.
In addition, species planned for the project will be drought tolerant and lower in height, such as elm trees, which are already common in the area. Trees will be planted in areas that have installed irrigation or would need “very little” alteration to provide irrigation.
Councilmember Jenny Brekhus said she was “troubled” by the fact that the city would be in charge of irrigation and spoke at length that the city should not take on any more irrigation projects. She said the airport should pay for the maintenance of the area.
Councilmember Miguel Martinez said this grant ties into the strategic plan adopted by the council, and that he finds it disgruntling that a disadvantaged community is being used as a pawn to discuss other priorities.
“We’re using this neighborhood to advocate for other causes … this community does not need to suffer because of priorities we’ve identified in other parts of town.”
Martinez said the council has already received support from constituents about the tree planting, and that the median is already maintained by the city and already has some trees in the area, and this would simply be adding to the canopy.
“I am in full support of accepting this grant, and I appreciate the effort in bringing these trees to a much-in-need area of town,” Martinez said.
Councilmember Devon Reese said that, like Martinez, he found it “odd not to celebrate the win” in receiving such a substantial grant to create more tree canopy.
“Obviously there’s a cost to water, but there’s an overall cost to allowing our tree canopy to continue to thin,” Reese added.
Vice Mayor Naomi Duerr has been a longtime advocate for increasing the tree canopy in Reno, and said that any amount of grant funding toward trees should be celebrated.
“This is truly unprecedented,” Duerr said. “We haven’t gotten $500,000 for one of our sustainability initiatives in forever. I think the only one I can think of was the NV Energy grant for solar behind Moana. We would be lucky to get $10,000 for trees—which we have, and we celebrated it. I also think it’s important to note we have a responsibility for our public streets, and there’s been every type of documentation of the [detrimental] health effects of travel along those streets [such as Airway Drive]. There is a cost of not doing something.”
Duerr said as far as the airport’s responsibility goes, the city does not expect any property owner to be required to cross a highway to water trees within a median.
Brekhus said the grant was akin to a “bailout” to the industrial buildings in the area being developed which will “make millions leasing a brand new industrial building because they don’t have to put out these obligations of watering and planting these trees, and we could have used [the grant] elsewhere.”
Brekhus said she is troubled that “too much” is being done by staff behind the scenes instead of being brought to the council for deliberation.
Councilmember Meghan Ebert said she, too, would have liked to see other areas the grant could be used for prior to selection.
“In my ward, we are also struggling with low canopy and climate change, and there are some specific areas that have high temperature increases,” Ebert said. “I just want to make sure these grants are going toward areas with the most need. As council, we need to be able to look at the entire city.”
The grant was accepted and funds will be used for the planting itself, as well as material removal and greenhouse improvements to support the program.
Correction: The original version of this story attributed statements to Councilmember Taylor that were actually made my Councilmember Ebert. This story has been corrected.
