September, 2023 | US Nature4Climate

Treesilience: Urban Forestry for Communities and Climate

Woman planting a tree in a suburban area with a caption that says "Urban-led Urban Forestry: The Treesilience initiative aims to reduce tree cover disparities by planting, maintaining, and replacing trees in urban neighborhoods, benefiting people, wildlife, and the climate.

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Urban trees offer numerous benefits, including filtering air and water, conserving energy, providing animal habitat, and reducing energy costs. They can also mitigate carbon dioxide emissions significantly.
Disparities in tree cover exist between low- and high-income neighborhoods, as well as between communities of color and white communities. This inequity leads to various negative impacts on health and well-being.
The Treesilience initiative, a collaboration involving The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service, and community-based organizations, aims to reduce tree cover disparities by planting, maintaining, and replacing trees in urban neighborhoods. It prioritizes communities with the greatest need.
In Chicago, the Imani Green Health Advocates program trains advocates in urban forestry and community health, with a focus on planting trees in high-need areas. The program provides career opportunities and improves community well-being.
The St. Louis Treesilience program removes hazardous trees and replants two trees for every one removed, focusing on areas with threatened or lost canopy. It aims to improve respiratory health in communities with high air pollution rates and receives federal funding support for urban reforestation efforts.
Federal funding is essential for supporting urban tree canopy projects like Treesilience, utilizing grants from agencies like the USDA Forest Service to address tree cover disparities and promote reforestation, with efforts underway to amend legislation to ensure urban initiatives are integrated into broader reforestation goals.

The benefits of urban trees are well documented. According to the USDA Forest Service, “urban forests help to filter air and water, control storm water, conserve energy, and provide animal habitat and shade.” They also provide tangible financial benefits to communities, with one study finding that urban trees can reduce energy use in residential areas by an average of 7.2%, saving billions of dollars.

Urban trees also provide benefits for climate. Indeed, research from American Forests and The Nature Conservancy reveals that planting 522 million to 1.2 billion trees in urban areas could mitigate between 8.7 million and 25.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year respectively – equivalent to removing between 1.94 million and 5.74 million cars from the road. To realize these benefits, it isn’t enough to just plant trees – it is also necessary to maintain the trees after they are planted to ensure that they survive and thrive. Failure to plan for trees’ long-term survival can lead to the rapid death of newly planted trees. It’s also incredibly important to maintain large, long-lived mature trees currently providing optimal benefits while new trees grow large enough to do the same.

Unfortunately, the benefits of urban trees are not spread equitably across American communities. A national tree survey conducted by The Nature Conservancy, mapping urban tree canopy in 5,723 U.S. cities and towns reveals widespread inequity in tree cover between low- and high-income neighborhoods in U.S. cities, finding that, on average, there is 15.2% higher-tree cover in higher-income neighborhoods compared to lower-income areas. Furthermore, research by American Forests shows that the majority of communities of color have, on average, 33% less tree cover than the majority of white communities. This leads to higher temperatures, increased energy costs, fewer opportunities for outdoor recreation, and less resilience to storms and flooding in these communities. All these factors contribute to diminished health and well-being, particularly for communities of color, compared to white and/or affluent communities.

Map showing urban forestry and disparities in tree cover in the south and west sides of Chicago.

Map showing urban forestry and disparities in tree cover in St. Louis.

TREE EQUITY Disparities in tree cover exist between low- and high-income neighborhoods, as well as between communities of color and white communities. This inequity leads to various negative impacts on health and well-being. The orange areas in the images above show areas with poor tree equity scores (including low tree canopy). Source: American Forests’ Tree Equity Score tool for south Chicago (left) and St. Louis (right).

Treesilience: Community-Led Efforts To Increase & Maintain Urban Tree Cover

Treesilience, a national initiative administered through a partnership among The Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, Davey Tree Expert Company, and myriad community-based organizations, agencies, and industry partners, began in Chicago in 2020, and then spread to Orlando and St. Louis. The initiative is aimed at reducing disparities in tree cover and eliminating barriers to healthy tree canopy by removing and replacing dead or dying trees, maintaining and pruning existing trees, and planting new trees in urban neighborhoods where tree canopy has been threatened or lost. Importantly, the Treesilience program does not just focus on planting trees – it also helps maintain existing mature trees to ensure they remain healthy and strong. Efforts are targeted toward communities with the most need using the best available science. The program is administered jointly with community organizations – like Imani Village, Missouri ReLeaf, Beyond Housing, and Pine Hills Community Council – and when possible, young emerging professionals from within the community are engaged in the work, providing new pathways for careers in arboriculture.

Treesilience is currently active in Chicago, St. Louis, and Orlando, with plans to expand into additional U.S. cities and states. Read on to learn more about two of these programs.

Chicago: Urban Forestry with Imani Green Health Advocates & Treesilience

Rachel Patterson, a lifelong resident of the South Side of Chicago, initially believed that her Environmental Studies degree would not offer many career opportunities in her local area. However, her perspective changed when she discovered the Imani Green Health Advocates internship, the program through which Treesilience is implemented in Chicago.

This initiative, a collaboration between Imani Village, Trinity United Church of Christ, Advocate Health Care, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, The Morton Arboretum, The Nature Conservancy, and the USDA Forest Service, focuses on professional development and career training in three areas: environmental health, community health, and spiritual health. The advocates engage in outreach efforts within various neighborhoods on Chicago’s south and west sides, including Pullman, West Pullman, Cottage Grove Heights, Washington Heights, Roseland, and Chatham, addressing aspects of physical and mental health, landscape health, and spiritual well-being.

The Imani Green Health Advocates program is part of a larger, 23-acre, sustainable mixed-use development known as Imani Village, spearheaded by leaders and parishioners from Trinity United Church of Christ. Imani Village includes an urban farm, organic garden, NCAA sports complex, retail center, health clinic, youth development center, and community housing.

Sustainability and meaningful employment are central to Imani Village’s approach to community health, and this philosophy is reflected in the Imani Green Health Advocates program. The Advocates receive comprehensive training in urban forestry, tree health, and urban landscapes, with guidance from The Nature Conservancy and partners.

Picture of one Imani Green Health advocate being trained in urban forestry by planting a tree.

COMMUNITY ACTION The Imani Green Health Advocates program trains advocates in urban forestry and community health, with a focus on planting trees in high-need areas. The program provides career opportunities and improves community well-being. Photos by Joel Zavala/TNC.

Now in its fifth year, more than 20 advocates have been a part of the program, helping survey tree health and canopy in Chicago’s neighborhoods, identifying ideal locations for tree planting, and setting a goal of responsibly planting 50 trees per year in high-need communities. The tree-health findings are incorporated into Advocate Hospital’s community health needs assessment, and today Chicago residents can also request a tree or tree removal through the City’s CHI311 mobile app.

According to Patricia Eggleston, the Executive Director of Imani Village, the goal is to create a holistic and healthy lifestyle for the community, providing opportunities for meaningful careers and well-paid employment. As the program progresses, more permanent job placements are envisioned for the Advocates. For Rachel, the program expanded her resume through work with organizations like Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and Audubon Great Lakes. She has also returned to the program as a guest presenter, sharing her story and conducting workshops with new cohorts of Advocates.

The collaborative efforts of Imani Village and its partners not only aim to create career opportunities for local residents but also to empower the community and improve overall health and well-being. With the continued growth of the Imani Green Health Advocates program and the amenities provided by Imani Village, the South Side of Chicago looks forward to becoming a vibrant and sustainable community for its residents.

Treesilience St. Louis: Growing a Resilient Tree Canopy

A healthy urban tree canopy provides a multitude of ecological, economic and social benefits that can enhance the overall quality of life. But threats to these trees – like life-threatening tree insects or pathogens – can weaken and even kill trees over time. These threats are worsening over time, largely due to climate change. In brief, these life-saving organisms go from benefit to burden, sometimes in a matter of a few years as can be the case for ash trees impacted by emerald ash borer. Frustratingly, costs associated with tree removal or mature tree pruning can be prohibitive for many. And, the longer dead or dying trees remain on one’s property, the greater the risk they pose, which can leave residents feeling less favorable toward trees, understandably. Hazardous tree removals or pruning can bring peace of mind to homeowners and communities, and perhaps even begin to restore relationships with trees over time.

That was the case for Dorothy Collins, who lives in the Pine Lawn neighborhood in north St. Louis County. In December 2021, the St. Louis Treesilience program officially kicked off in her front yard with the removal of a large sweetgum tree that had a huge stress fracture and was posing a threat to her house and more importantly, her safety.

For every tree removed in St. Louis, the team replants two trees in its place through a partnership with Forest ReLeaf of Missouri’s tree nursery.

The initiative focuses on areas where canopy is either threatened or already lost, and prioritizes communities where neighbors stand to gain the most from increased canopy, which is also the case for Collins. Communities in and around north St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis have high rates of air pollution and asthma-related hospitalizations.

“Community trees provide us significant benefits, and we believe that everyone deserves access not only to trees and greenspaces but to healthy trees and greenspaces,” Rachel Holmes, The Nature Conservancy’s urban forestry strategist, says. “Studies have shown that respiratory health can be improved by the expansion of healthy tree cover in areas with higher air pollution.”

The effects of Treesilience are lasting, but they start paying off immediately. At the program kick off, Collins shared her gratitude with the program partners for the removal and also her two new trees

“I’m thankful for everyone here and I’m relieved to get rid of that tree…I really am,” Collins said, adding that she is excited to watch her new trees grow.

Federal Support for Scaling Urban Forestry Program

Treesilience offers an important example of how combined federal funding sources that support both rural and urban forests can help advance the national climate agenda, overall, particularly through comprehensive reforestation. According to research shared by both American Forests and The Nature Conservancy through the Reforestation Hub, approximately 19% of the reforestation potential in the United States is in urban landscapes. Additionally, major tree insects and diseases are often discovered in urban trees and forests first.

Federal funding sources that support Treesilience – which is, at its core, a reforestation program – include a grant from the USDA Forest Service’s Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) competitive grants program, which leverages both public and private resources to support collaborative, science-based restoration of forested landscapes, particularly in rural communities. These funds support Treesilience in North St. Louis County, where the population size of the 24 individual municipalities that make up the region qualify as ‘rural.’ Accordingly, Treesilience is an example of how LSR funding can not only support this urban forestry program, but also help meet broader U.S. reforestation goals.

Efforts are currently underway to revise the 2023 Farm Bill, the Congressional authority for the LSR grant program, to ensure that LSR applications for projects on urban landscapes may be fully considered alongside projects in rural communities, reflecting the need for a more comprehensive reforestation approach.

Programs like Imani Green Health Advocates (and/or organizations like Missouri ReLeaf) are also funded through generous support from the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Program, which recently received a $1.5 billion boost in funding under the Inflation Reduction Act. The UCF Program provides technical, financial, and educational assistance to help urban communities increase and maintain healthy tree cover, with an emphasis on providing assistance to nature-deprived communities. This program is also authorized through the Farm Bill, making that particular legislation indispensable to nationwide efforts to expand tree cover and ensure the benefits of trees are enjoyed in all communities, while also tapping into the full potential of urban trees to address climate change.

Additional Resources

Download project fact sheet
(includes pathways for scaling)

Watch animated infographic

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Advancing Agroforestry in the Midwest: Hudson Demonstration Farm

CLICK TO READ ARTICLE'S KEY POINTS

Agroforestry, which involves integrating trees into agriculture, is a vital solution to climate change. Trees’ deep roots help manage water, sequester carbon, and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather, making them powerful allies in adapting to and mitigating climate change.
Demonstration farms play a crucial role in educating farmers and the public about agroforestry. They serve as practical examples, helping people understand how agroforestry works and learn all the benefits of regenerative farming.
The are several barriers to agroforestry adoption, including land access, upfront investments, and a lack of experienced practitioners. Addressing these obstacles is essential to encourage more farmers to embrace agroforestry practices.
Policy support, particularly through USDA programs and the Farm Bill, is essential for scaling up agroforestry adoption. We need policy changes that recognize agroforestry’s role in addressing climate change and offer financial incentives for its implementation.
Despite the challenges posed by climate change, agroforestry is a transformative practice that can positively impact biodiversity, habitat restoration, and rural communities, offering a brighter and more stable future for agriculture and the environment.

Most people have no idea what agroforestry is. And they especially don’t know what it looks like. Displaying agroforestry on demonstration farms allows people to understand how trees fit into farm landscapes.

As the Director of Demonstration Farms at the Savanna Institute, a nonprofit organization working to lay the groundwork for widespread agroforestry in the Midwest, I help people better understand what agroforestry is, as well as the multiple benefits it can provide to farmers. Demonstration farms can serve as a blueprint for how the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s programs and policy initiatives, like the 2023 Farm Bill, could support the expansion of agroforestry plantings.

Agroforestry 101

Agroforestry has a lot of definitions, but simply put, it’s the integration of trees into agriculture. By this definition, agroforestry has been practiced for thousands of years, and in thousands of different ways, across the world. A few key practices are especially promising for the Midwestern United States, such as alley cropping (rows of trees growing within rows of crops) and windbreaks (rows of trees planted along the edges of fields to reduce wind, pesticide drift and soil erosion).

So much of our country’s landscape now is foreign to what it looked like 30 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and 300 years ago. All the amazing soil that we have here in the heartland is because of the prairies and savannas that were here. This history is extremely important, because while ‘agroforestry’ can be seen as a set of USDA practices, it’s way more than that. It’s generations of people that have been working with trees up to the present day. So, agroforestry is not only directly related to what happened in the past, but it directly informs what will happen in the future.

Agroforestry’s Role in Preparing for Climate Change

As we’re entering this time of uncertain weather patterns, farmers sometimes have no rain at all. Other times, an incredible amount of water comes onto farm landscapes all at once. Trees can play an important role in navigating this challenge. The amazing thing about trees is they have deep root systems that allow water to spread out and sink in. The perennial roots of tree crops allow them to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather while also sequestering greenhouse gases and reducing climate change directly.

Because of the powerful role that trees can play on farm landscapes, agroforestry has everything to do with climate change. Trees are some of our most powerful allies we have when it comes to adapting and mitigating a changing climate. There’s nothing more efficient than a tree when it comes to storing carbon at deep levels of soil where we need to hold it in place. And what makes trees even more exciting is they can be productive. We can put trees on landscapes in a way that is doing something for climate change, but also adding value to farmlands, either through conservation or through the production of new crops.

Drought and Planning

I have seen first-hand the impacts a changing climate is already having on farmers. Through my work at the Savanna Institute, I manage the Hudson Demonstration Farm, a privately owned, 120-acre farm in central Illinois that serves as an agroforestry demonstration site through an innovative 50-year lease agreement with the landowner. Agroforestry is being established on all of the 120 acres, in combination with corn, soybeans, and other common Midwestern crops. In 2023, a severe drought created challenges for our agroforestry work, as well as for the alley crop farmer’s soybean production.

Even though farms in Central Illinois are seeing the driest soil we’ve had since the eighties, the trees we planted here are doing just fine, and even trees that were planted as recently as last year seem to be doing reasonably well thanks to deeper roots that can access moisture farther down in the soil. The crops that are struggling most with the drought are annual crops, like the corn and soybeans that are grown across much of Illinois and the Midwest. However, growing trees close to these annual crops can actually help them access water too, by drawing up moisture higher in the soil profile where shorter crop roots can access it.

While this drought has led to challenges, it has also provided an opportunity to demonstrate how to farm in an increasingly chaotic climate. The future of agriculture is happening right now on these demonstration farms. As the weather gets more extreme, farmers will be forced to do things differently.

On-Farm Education

For agroforestry to gain broader acceptance, it is important for it to be highly visible. Demonstration farms can play a powerful role in bringing people out to learn more about agroforestry.

The Savanna Institute utilizes Hudson Farm, along with its broader network of demonstration farms throughout the Midwest, to conduct education and outreach for greater agroforestry adoption. This includes field days, private tours, research, an agroforestry apprenticeship program, and a new video series about the farms.

This education is very important, because agroforestry requires the thoughtful management of multiple systems at once, such as tree crops in combination with grains, vegetables, or livestock. This offers the potential for “overyielding” – achieving productivity above 100% due to multiple crops in the same space – but it also increases the number of things that can go wrong. Our demonstration farms help us find ways to co-exist, while also providing opportunities to document and learn from our mistakes, so others don’t make the same mistakes again.

One of the reasons why I’m drawn to this work is because we are showing that the corn and soybean production with large tractors guided by GPS and increasingly advanced technology can exist alongside the use of trees. The future of agriculture is to do both. Both of these things CAN happen at the same time.

Costs and Barriers

Why isn’t agroforestry more common in the Midwest? A number of significant barriers stand in the way. Land access for aspiring agroforesters, either through land ownership or a favorable long-term lease, remains out of reach for many. Because tree crops usually require significant up-front capital and labor investment with no immediate payback, providing financial mechanisms to fund agroforestry establishment is a primary need. A shortage of nursery stock for preferred agroforestry crops, as well as a lack of farmers with sufficient agroforestry management experience, also represent limiting factors.

For example, if a farmer is planting a chestnut tree, that tree is not going to produce its first chestnuts for around five years, and they’re not going to come into full production until around their twelfth year. This means that farmers are required to make a significant investment of time, labor, and money before those trees start to produce, which can be really hard when operating farms on tight margins. In Midwest agriculture, we’re usually focused on short-term economics instead of long-term economics, and that can be a barrier for some farmers.

Another barrier is that there simply are not a lot of people doing agroforestry. A person might be the only one in their community that’s planting tree crops or doing agroforestry on their farm, and that can get really lonely after a while. Hopefully as we spread the word about agroforestry, this will become less of a barrier for agroforestry adopters.

USDA Support for Agroforestry

While some of these barriers can be addressed by organizations like the Savanna Institute, others require innovation by policymakers or financial institutions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can be a powerful change agent in scaling up widespread implementation of agroforestry, and a number of USDA programs are already supporting its adoption. Through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), landowners can access cost share funding for the cost of planting trees, as well as the loss of income from taking land out of annual production.

Indeed, at the Hudson Demonstration Farm, the USDA helped pay for every tree that was planted. At Hudson, the NRCS’ Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) supports the establishment and maintenance of the windbreak and pollinator plantings while the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) supports three different types of alley cropping. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) can also help pay for costs associated with Agroforestry establishment. EQIP is a particularly powerful program for people that may not have commodity crop land, including specialty crop growers or livestock producers who want to establish agroforestry.

SUPPORTING FARMERS The USDA can be a powerful change agent in scaling up widespread implementation of agroforestry, with programs like the Conservation Reserve Program, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program helping farmers with the establishment and maintenance of practices like alley cropping and windbreaks. Photos by Alita Films.

Another USDA effort, the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program, is pulling together people working in agroforestry into regional hubs that allow us to scale agroforestry where they are located and deploy it throughout the United States. Led by The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with multiple partners, this five-year grant establishes six regional hubs in the eastern US and Hawaii. Agroforestry currently represents less than 2% of U.S. agriculture. This project aims to create 30,000 acres of new agroforestry plantings over the next five years.

In 2023, Congress has the opportunity to expand the USDA’s support for agroforestry through the Farm Bill, legislation that touches the life of every single person in the US, whether we know it or not. When it comes to agroforestry, there is a major opportunity to put in place a transformative Farm Bill, providing opportunities to tweak some existing programs to make them more friendly to agroforestry, while also providing additional funding for agroforestry research, technical assistance, and adoption. It is vital that we let policy makers know that agroforestry is important to us, that it is a climate change solution, that it is an economic opportunity, and that historic investment will help accelerate that adoption even faster.

Returning to Agroforestry

Despite dealing with the consequences of climate collapse on a daily basis, I am still hopeful about the future. As a parent, I sometimes feel that having children and planting trees is part of the same work: fostering a better, brighter, more stable future. A few years back, I was out working on an agroforestry farm and heard a bobwhite quail call from the windbreak. I started weeping, right there in the field, because I hadn’t heard that sound since I was a child. Through planting trees, that farm had built a habitat for a bird that no longer existed in the area and they came back. Being able to watch the land change, regenerate, and diversify thanks to agroforestry fills me with the same emotions as watching my children grow.

I think that trees have the opportunity to bring people back to the land, to farms, to their communities and rural areas, and to places where they feel like they can be hopeful and that they can build their lives around that. And while planting a tree is simple, it’s the first step in that transformation.

Additional Resources

Download project fact sheet
(includes pathways for scaling)

Explore more Natural Climate Solutions

Learn more about the Savanna Institute

USFWS Coastal Program benefits fish and fishing in Freeport, Maine

CLICK TO READ ARTICLE'S KEY POINTS

IMPORTANCE OF ESTUARIES: Estuaries are crucial ecosystems, with over 40% of Americans living in estuary regions and almost 47% of the U.S. GDP coming from coastal areas. Additionally, nearly 70% of American seafood harvests rely on estuaries.
USFWS COASTAL PROGRAM: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program has partnered with various organizations for decades to protect and restore coasts, with a focus on estuary health and resilience, particularly in the face of climate change.
DAM REMOVAL PROJECT: A dam removal project in Frost Gully Brook near Freeport, Maine, supported by the USFWS Casco Bay Coastal Program, Trout Unlimited, and others, removed defunct dams to restore fish habitat and mitigate the negative effects of dams on stream ecosystems.
BENEFITS OF RESTORATION: Restoring native plants and riparian buffers along Frost Gully Brook provides shade, erosion control, and habitat for brook trout, while also sequestering carbon dioxide, thus contributing to climate change mitigation.
ECONOMIC IMPACT: Removing barriers like dams and restoring estuaries and streams not only benefit fisheries but also support the economy by attracting anglers and outdoor enthusiasts.
SUPPORT NEEDED: Partnerships between organizations, governments, and private entities are crucial for achieving conservation goals, and increased funding is needed to sustain these efforts and address climate and coastal resilience challenges.

Estuaries, the coastal intersection of rivers and the sea, are some of the most diverse and economically important ecosystems on planet earth. According to a 2021 Report, The Economic Value of America’s Estuaries, more than 40% of Americans live in estuary regions and roughly 47% of the U.S. GDP comes from our coasts. Additionally, almost 70% of America’s seafood harvest spend some or all their lives in estuaries – including salmon, blue crabs, and oysters.

One of the key programs in place to protect and restore estuaries is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program, a voluntary program that has built its legacy on supporting partnerships in coastal communities for the better part of four decades – working alongside private landowners, non-profits, and various government agencies to restore and protect coasts. Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE), a national alliance of coastal restoration organizations, has been a longstanding partner of the Program, working together with the Service and our various partners to support the mission of the Service and to improve the health and resilience of estuaries, particularly in a changing climate.

An important facet of a healthy estuary is connectivity between rivers and the sea. One such project opened miles of free-flowing river upstream from the Casco Bay estuary near Freeport, Maine.

With support from the USFWS Casco Bay Coastal Program, Trout Unlimited (TU), Freeport Conservation Trust, and other local groups completed a project which opened miles of habitat for migratory fish on Frost Gully Brook, a tributary of the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay. The groups removed three defunct dams in the Summer of 2023, and will now embark on a comprehensive stream restoration effort, including work to replant native trees and plants along the stream’s banks.

In addition to blocking fish passage, dams like those in Frost Gully Brook also raise temperatures in streams by pooling water, block the free flow of nutrient rich sediments to flood plains and downstream estuaries, and create increased flood risks to downstream communities.

The native plant and riparian buffer restoration on Frost Gully Brook will also provide shade to the stream during the summer months, protect from unnatural erosion of stream banks, and provide habitat for brook trout and other species. These trees and plants also help mitigate climate change by naturally removing and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Indeed, according to the Reforestation Hub, reforesting streamside buffers has the potential to sequester 10 million tons of carbon dioxide a year nationwide.

Restoring For the Future

The source and much of Frost Gully Brook is cold water spring influenced, which keeps water temperatures at safe levels for native brook trout; typically, less than 65 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. The newly accessible sections of river will allow these fish to migrate to traditional spawning areas as well as access cooler waters in the warm summer months. According to Keith Curley, Vice President of Eastern Conservation at Trout Unlimited, “the water temperatures on Frost Gully Brook in the hottest part of July were no higher than 66 degrees in the headwaters but warmed up to 74 degrees behind a dam downstream. Removing these dams will help to keep water temperatures within the tolerance range of brook trout.”  

“Given the naturally low water temperatures, Frost Gully Brook is already resilient to warming air temperatures as climate change increasingly threatens our nation’s cold-water fisheries. This made it the perfect site for dam removal and restoration”, said Mark Taylor, Eastern Communications Director at TU.

The reconnected stream also presents anglers with new opportunities. Aside from the resident brook trout, Frost Gully Brook is also home to a subpopulation of salter brook trout. The Salters, although genetically identical to resident fish, travel freely between fresh and saltwater and tend to grow much larger than resident brookies. Sea-run brook trout are unique to New England and Canada where cold-water streams flow directly into the ocean rather than traversing through warmer coastal plains, such as those in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast United States.

“Brook trout need clean, cold water to survive, so they can tell you a lot about the health of a watershed. If brook trout are doing well, then it’s a safe bet that other fish and wildlife are doing well too” said Mr. Curley, again. “This is especially important along the coast, where development can harm water quality and watershed health. If we can keep strong populations of brook trout in coastal streams, we will know we’re taking good care of our watersheds.”

Fishing and the Economy

Maine is a well-known destination fishery with a long-standing tradition and allure that attracts anglers from all over the world. In addition to salter brook trout, the state is home to some of the last remaining populations of wild landlocked and anadromous Atlantic Salmon in the United States. According to the American Sportfishing Association, more than 281,000 anglers spent upwards of $191 million fishing in Maine in 2021.

Outdoor recreation accounted for just under 4% of Maine’s total gross domestic product (GDP), putting it in the top five states in the U.S. in value of outdoor recreation added to state GDP, according to the Maine Office of Outdoor Recreation. The state is also home to one of the largest outdoor retailers in the world, L.L. Bean, whose Freeport headquarters sit just a few miles from the Frost Gully Brook dam removal sites.

Improvements such as dam removal and stream restoration help support this robust economic driver by offering more and more diverse opportunities for anglers, hikers, and other recreation enthusiasts to enjoy. When they come to town, fishermen and women pay for guides, equipment, lodging, food, and fuel, as well as secondary and tertiary tourism related businesses (think housecleaning, insurance, construction). In rural communities, fishing and other outdoor activities can often stand up the entire local economy. Protecting and restoring streams and estuaries, and the fish they support, has much larger ramifications for the broader region.

Building Conservation Partnerships

Partnerships like this between the Coastal Program, non-profits, state and municipal governments, and private partners are quintessential for achieving climate goals and protecting climate susceptible species, like brook trout.

Since its founding in 1985, the Program has engaged more than 8,200 conservation partners to complete roughly 5,000 conservation projects, improved 600,000+ acres, and protected another 2.3 million acres of priority habitat, while supporting the down-listing of at least 15 endangered and threatened species. In 2022 alone, the program leveraged its investment to secure an astounding 9:1 match from partner funding sources.

“Building partnerships also builds consistency which can translate to more funding, less disruption, and creates stronger long-term relationships” said Samaya Rubio, Community Engagement Associate with RAE. “The Coastal Program is more than just a funding source, they’re a convener, bringing together diverse partners to achieve common goals.”

Despite its long track record of success and increased demand, the Coastal Program has been consistently underfunded and understaffed since its inception. Annual appropriations for this critical program have hardly increased since at least 2014.

Beyond supporting fish passage improvements in Maine, the Coastal Program works diligently in 24 priority estuaries across the country to secure shorelines using nature-based processes, restore marsh and wetland habitats to sequester carbon and protect communities from storms and flooding, and engages private landowners, such as farmers and developers, in best practices to maintain healthy coastal ecosystems while also improving economic opportunities.

Program staff also provide expertise, resources, equipment, historical knowledge, and create an invaluable network of local restoration and conservation professionals. These partner building efforts also help reduce redundancy and streamline restoration.

Increased funding for the Coastal Program, along with the already established $175 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through NOAA to remove fish passage barriers (part of a larger allocation $2 billion in funding for ecosystem restoration that supports fish passage), can go a long way in securing the health and viability of our favorite game fish – creating opportunities for more people to enjoy outdoor pursuits as well as providing for local economies.

Without adequate funding, though, the Program is unable to maintain these relationships and thus critical projects are left in limbo due to either lack of resources or expertise, and oftentimes both. Legislation is currently moving through both Chambers of Congress (H.R. 2950 and S.1381) that would strengthen the coastal program’s financial footing and, for the first time since its founding, provide Congressional authorization.

If passed, the strength and success of the Program can grow exponentially, providing another tool to reach our climate and coastal resilience goals, and providing countless recreational opportunities for anglers not just in Maine but throughout the United States.

Rob Shane is the Senior Manager of Communications for Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) based in Washington, DC. He is an avid angler who can often be found searching for native brook trout in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Additional Resources

Download project fact sheet
(Includes pathways for scaling)

Watch animated infographic

Explore more Natural Climate Solutions