Feds pull $400K tree-planting grant for Indianapolis. Was it victim of Trump's anti-DEI push?
Jeremy Kranowitz, president and CEO of KIB, said the $400,000 grant for urban forestry projects was awarded to the organization in January through the Arbor Day Foundation, but was then clawed back on Tuesday. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is a nonprofit organization that plants trees throughout the city and coordinates large-scale clean up programs.
The Arbor Day Foundation did not immediately respond to IndyStar questions about the grant.
The money, reflecting about 6% of KIB's annual funding, would have provided Indianapolis with a more biodiverse tree canopy and made tree plantings more equitable throughout the city. The use of the words 'biodiversity' and 'equity' may have been the reason the grant was revoked, Kranowitz hypothesized.
There's growing evidence that words like 'biodiversity' are being targeted by federal agencies bent on terminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives across the country.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently cancelled a federal contract in Hawaii for an agency meeting on biodiversity and has identified and canceled other training programs on environmental justice claiming they run 'contrary to the values of millions of American taxpayers.'
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said a $1 million grant awarded to The University of Texas at El Paso for research into the evolution of birds was one of thousands of grants promoting DEI, according to a report from El Paso Matters.
A federal judge in Baltimore, however, has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order that ends support for DEI programs.
Kranowitz was in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago speaking with colleagues about the funding freezes and was told anything related to environmental justice is on the chopping block.
'All those things are getting swept up in this giant purge and we all should be on the lookout for a lot of those things to start getting cancelled or clawed back,' Kranowitz said.
KIB's use of the words biodiversity and equity in its grant application were not related to DEI initiatives, and the organization is not political.
'It doesn't matter what your politics are, and we've had support from both republicans and democrats,' Kranowitz said. 'So, we are getting caught up in what seems like a big purge of all things DEI and really all we want to do is make the city a better place for everybody.'
KIB does have a commitment to diversity and being an inclusive organization, Kranowitz said, but that isn't taking a political stance.
The money would have helped KIB plant more trees throughout the city, and those plantings should not be all the same kind of tree, Kranowitz explained.
'In history, there have been problems like Dutch Elm disease on the East Coast or here in Indiana with the emerald ash borer," he said, "and the reason why they were able to be so destructive is because there were so many of the same type of tree and that destructive fungus or insect is specialized to that species.'
Biodiverse planting helps keep the trees healthy and living for future generations to enjoy.
The equity portion of the grant language just meant that the money would be used to plant trees in areas of the city that didn't have as many as other parts of Indianapolis.
'At the end of the day it's: let's have a more even distribution of trees in the city,' Kranowitz said. 'There's nothing that's political there, it's just pointing out that the southeast corner has fewer trees than the northwest corner, so let's plant more trees there.'
The organization had not yet committed the grant money, but Kranowitz said it was intended create both pocket parks that are less than an acre in size, as well as larger projects that might span five acres.
'We were hoping to do one or two really big impactful green spaces with this funding,' Kranowitz said.
The smaller pocket parks typically cost around $25,000-$40,000, while the larger projects can run between $200,000-$400,000. These larger green spaces can include walking paths, vegetable and pollinator gardens, and other elements that allow visitors to stretch out a bit, Kranowitz said.
IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Feds pull tree-planting grant from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
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