American Forests, the nation’s oldest conservation nonprofit, says Detroit has planted 25,000 trees since launching a local tree equity partnership in 2021 —part of a broader plan to plant 75,000 by 2027.

Benita Hussein, chief program officer of American Forests’ Tree Equity Program, says the initiative targets neighborhoods with fewer trees and higher exposure to extreme heat and respiratory illness.

“We’re talking about planting and maintaining trees in places where they historically have not existed,” Hussein said.

The program has been supported by federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act, which directed $1.5 billion to urban forestry initiatives nationwide. American Forests received $50 million of that funding, which Hussein says is being deployed in cities across the Midwest, including Detroit.

However, recent changes by the Trump administration have led to the cancellation of several federal environmental justice grants, including those increasing urban forestry in the U.S.

Hussein acknowledged the “turbulence” coming from the federal level but said the organization remains committed to its work.

“We are certainly keeping an eye on all of the different sort of guidance and turbulence… and we’re in it with all of our partners,” she said.

The Detroit partnership includes local conservation groups like the Greening of Detroit. Hussein says the effort also includes training 500 Detroiters in tree care and maintenance to ensure the long-term health of the city’s growing canopy.

The Environmental Protection Agency has released a laundry list of policies related to climate change and pollution it wants to roll back.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is calling it the “greatest day of deregulation our nation has ever seen,” but Michigan environmental groups don’t see this as a cause for celebration.

The EPA announced 31 actions that it says will “unleash” energy, lower costs for consumers, create jobs and give decision-making power back to states.

Some actions include rolling back mercury and air quality standards, loosening regulations on wastewater from power plants and reconsidering mandatory greenhouse gas reporting, among others.

In a video statement, Zeldin called these rules “suffocating” and said the “green new scam” ends with this announcement.

Conan Smith, president of the Michigan Environmental Council, said he’s disturbed by the EPA’s shift in priorities.

“From caring for our natural resources and environment to exploiting and extracting them — it’s not the purpose of the EPA, not since the 1970s when it was founded,” Smith said.

Smith said other federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Energy are concerned with economic interests, while the EPA is meant to serve as “checks and balances.”

“I think the EPA administrator has fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of the agency he’s been selected to lead,” he said.

Christy McGillivray, with the Michigan Sierra Club, said the EPA’s promise to lower consumer costs through these actions is based on a false premise.

“It is going to make already incredibly rich people a little bit richer for a short amount of time because they won’t have to actually account for the full cost of doing business. That’s it,” she said.

Instead, McGillivray said weakening regulations will only worsen air and water quality, racking up long-term public health costs.

“It’s a terrible long-term strategy,” she said. “All of our fates are tied together, so what’s the point of being a trillionaire if we destroy one fifth of the world’s freshwater in the Great Lakes?”

The EPA’s specific plans are still unclear such as whether environmental rules will be scaled back or eliminated entirely, but regulatory changes typically go through a lengthy process with public feedback and input from other federal agencies.