Cities Leading the Way on Nature-Based Solutions

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing about climate solutions from small- and medium-sized cities. Cities around the country are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Many cities and community partners are doing this work with support from federal agencies, while others can share key learnings from project implementation to help inform federal decision-making. 

During this briefing, speakers focused on nature-based solutions in cities—from parks that help manage stormwater to urban trees that can reduce summer temperatures across entire neighborhoods. Panelists, including a city government official, a community leader, and a federal agency partner, highlighted equitable and community-designed climate solutions from the places they live and work in and described the intersection points with federal policy and programs.

Highlights

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Policies that leverage nature-based solutions (such as green roofs and urban trees) play a key role in combating climate change and fostering resilient urban communities. Nature-based solutions can help address climate change by reducing flood risks, improving water quality, protecting coastal property, restoring and protecting wetlands, stabilizing shorelines, and reducing urban heat. American Forests has developed a tool called the Tree Equity Score that sets a national standard to assess how well the benefits of urban tree canopies reach the people most in need. Many municipalities have limited sustained funding and staff for nature-based solutions. Federal support is critical, especially funding that goes directly from the federal level to a municipality.

 

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, U.S Representative (D-Mo.)

• Policies that leverage nature-based solutions play a key role in combating climate change and fostering resilient urban communities.
• The TREES Act of 2023 (H.R.6348) would enable the planting of millions of trees in cities across the country, helping to lower energy costs, reduce the urban heat island effect, and limit the impact of climate change nationally.
• Urban green infrastructure solutions can have transformative impacts on a local scale by offsetting pollution, improving air quality, and underscoring the importance of equitable access to sustainability.

 

Peyton Siler Jones, Interim Director of Sustainability & Urban Innovation, Center for Municipal Practice, National League of Cities; Founder and Principal, Siler Climate Consulting

• A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report defines nature-based solutions as “sustainable planning, design, environmental management, and engineering practices that weave natural features or processes into the built environment to build more resilient communities.”
• Nature-based solutions can help address climate change by reducing flood risks, improving water quality, protecting coastal property, restoring and protecting wetlands, stabilizing shorelines, and reducing urban heat.
• Municipal-scale solutions fall into three categories:
  • Land conservation and management, which includes preventing practices such as draining wetlands, destroying grasslands, and cutting down forests.
  • Sequestering carbon through ocean and coastal solutions, regenerative agriculture, or recreational open space.
  • Climate preparedness projects, which include planting trees or restoring waterways and shorelines for flood control.
• Policymakers can leverage nature-based solutions to bring social and economic equity to their municipalities, for example by planting more trees in historically-redlined communities, which typically lack trees and other green space.
• The city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, unanimously passed a resolution to adopt No Mow May, a community initiative that encourages property owners to limit lawn mowing during the spring to increase pollinator-friendly habitats and soil regeneration.
• Benton Harbor, Michigan, leveraged Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (P.L. 117-58) funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Habitat Conservation to revitalize Ox Creek and mitigate stormwater runoff and flooding through nature-based solutions.
• The city of Mobile, Alabama, received funding through the National Park Service’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership grant program, made possible by IIJA, to create a recreational outdoor space that upgraded an urban stormwater conveyance.
• South Sioux City, Nebraska, accessed grant funds through the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program to invest in their tree canopy by planting trees in under-forested neighborhoods, updating data points, and removing dead trees.
• Networks of peer support among cities, towns, and villages can be beneficial in advancing this work. The National League of Cities and other organizations run technical assistance programs to support efforts to apply for funding and implement nature-based solutions.

 

Joel Pannell, Vice President of Urban Forests Policy, American Forests

• In the United States, neighborhoods with the lowest poverty rates have double the tree cover per person and are 6°F cooler than neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates.
• Neighborhoods with the fewest residents of color have four times more tree cover per person and are 13°F cooler than neighborhoods with the most people of color.
• Extreme heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. A Duke University study found that the United States has about 12,000 heat-related deaths per year, which could rise to almost 100,000 by the end of the century if no significant action is taken to mitigate climate change.
• In addition to heat reduction, trees have air quality benefits: they avert around 670,000 cases of acute respiratory illness annually. In cities like Richmond, Virginia, or Detroit, Michigan, which lack intact tree canopies, childhood asthma rates are four times higher than the state average.
• The U.S Forest Service found that trees and forests in U.S urban areas save $4.7 billion in electricity costs and $3.1 billion in heating costs annually, and reduce national residential energy use by 7.2%. Trees also sequester nearly 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.
• American Forests has developed a tool called the Tree Equity Score that sets a national standard to assess how well the benefits of urban tree canopies reach the people most in need. The tool covers 84% of the country; it includes information like surface temperature, income, and health vulnerability for at-risk populations by neighborhood; and indexes factors into a single score to help guide the equitable allocation of resources.
• To analyze this data further, American Forests has the Tree Equity Score Analyzer, which runs scenarios about the benefits of a specific tree planting project.
• Another resource is the Climate and Health Action Guide, which specifies the types of trees that are endemic to a region and optimal to meet human health and climate adaptation goals.
• The Urban Forestry Career Pathways Action Guide helps cities fill jobs in urban and community forestry, maintenance, and care with local labor.
• To further prepare and mobilize the workforce, the Arboriculture Pre-Employment Curriculum helps entities prepare people who face barriers to employment or live in low-income areas for careers in arboriculture. Covering childcare and transportation costs makes it easier for these individuals to benefit from employment opportunities.
• American Forests has partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to regrant $40 million of the $1.5 billion in IIJA funding for the Urban and Community Forestry Program. There were over $6 billion dollars in requests that came in for this funding.

 

Becky Daggett, Mayor, Flagstaff, Arizona

• The two major environmental problems in Flagstaff are wildfires and the resulting flooding. In August 2021, the city experienced severe flooding that displaced many residents, including elementary school children.
• The Green Schoolyards Initiative, a collaboration between the Children and Nature Network, National League of Cities, and other partners, selected Killip Elementary as a location to remediate the impacts of future floods by using their fields as a flood water detention basin to capture excess water. The redesign doubles as a green space for the students with planted trees, native plants, and pollinators.
• The elementary school established a Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Wellness Program, in which almost 500 students and 120 teachers participate. The program improved the school’s cyclical composting system, carbon sequestration, stormwater recapture, and increased students' sustainability behaviors.
• The Green Schoolyards Initiative provided critical technical assistance, which made Flagstaff’s work possible. Without that support, Flagstaff would not have had the internal capacity to bring the project to fruition.
• Flagstaff faces the challenge of lining up the programs, policies, timelines, and support from different agencies and different levels of government in a way that makes projects like this one possible.
• Municipalities like Flagstaff have limited sustained funding and staff for nature-based solutions. Federal support is critical, especially funding that goes directly from the federal level to a municipality.

 

Karen Sughrue, Environmental Protection Specialist, Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund Branch, Office of Water, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) is a federal-state partnership program that provides low-cost financing for a wide range of projects related to wastewater infrastructure and water quality.
• CWSRF receives federal appropriations each year, which are provided as capitalization grants to all 50 states and Puerto Rico. These grants are matched with state government appropriations. The combined fund lends money to qualifying water infrastructure projects. Interest payments for the project loans then get recycled back into the fund.
• The eligible project types include stormwater bioretention infrastructure such as rain gardens or tree boxes; permeable pavement; green roofs, streets, or walls; conservation easements; habitat restoration; and practices that reduce nonpoint-source pollution.
• The benefits of using CWSRF include low-cost financing with an average interest rate of 1.2% and extended loan terms of up to 30 years. The funding is flexible and can be paired with other sources like USDA or FEMA grants.
• The IIJA added $11.7 billion to CWSRF’s base funds and $1 billion to the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program.
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, used a $13 million loan to capture urban stormwater runoff before it enters the combined sewer overflow system. This helps to reduce the frequency and volume of overflows of the sewer system into the Susquehanna River and Paxton Creek.
• Cocoa Beach, Florida, used $1.8 million from CWSRF to reduce pollutants flowing into the local estuary. Part of the project included planting native landscape bioswales and tree filters.
• Waynesboro, Virginia, converted an open field into a wetland stormwater retention system to reduce polluted runoff reaching the South River with $1.7 million in CWSRF grant funding.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico, had a significant flood in 2018, which degraded the riverbanks of the Santa Fe River, allowing agricultural runoff and trash into the river. To solve this, Santa Fe used a $4.2 million loan to carry out a bank stabilization project that used green infrastructure (e.g., large boulders and revegetation) to improve water quality and control erosion.
• Jacksonville, North Carolina, had stormwater drainage issues due to undersized culverts and a dam, which led to flooding during heavy rain events. The city used $500,000 from the CWSRF to remove the dam, install a bridge, and build an enhanced stream buffer featuring native plantings. This area was also put under a conservation easement.
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wanted to improve the condition of Skunk Creek, a drinking water source for the community. The city used the CWSRF to obtain low-interest loans to implement a riparian protection project, whereby farmers received funding to restrict cattle grazing along the river, which allowed vegetation to regrow.
• Whitefish, Montana, employed a $8.2 million loan from CWSRF to create a conservation easement on 3,020 acres of land in the city’s watershed to protect drinking water and wildlife habitat.
• To help communities better understand and identify water challenges, EPA offers free technical assistance to eligible local governments, tribes, and utilities.

 

Q&A

 

Q: How can we ensure that nature-based solutions implemented today have long-lasting and durable benefits?

Siler Jones

• Municipal governments should have a maintenance and upkeep plan before nature-based solutions are implemented.
• It is also crucial to have funding sources and the workforce for this long-term maintenance.

Pannell

• When planting trees, maintenance plans and neighborhood consultation are imperative to ensure long-term stewardship.
• Quantifying the benefits of trees is helpful to demonstrate the value trees deliver for communities, and it opens up the possibility of reinvesting the monetary benefits in the upkeep of the tree canopy.

Daggett

• Partnerships with the community and ensuring neighborhood buy-in are critical to the longevity of these projects.
• In the case of Flagstaff, they are focused on planting culturally-relevant plants and herbs that are exciting to the local community.

Sughrue

• Cities can showcase and measure the benefits they are seeing from nature-based solutions.

 

Q: How can organizations partner with federal and state agencies, cities, and community partners to further advance nature-based solutions?

Pannell

• Partnerships at the beginning of projects, breaking down silos to make programs more efficient, and ensuring that funding reaches implementers as directly as possible will all increase the impact of projects.

Daggett

• Federal agency colleagues are invested in the success of the programs they partner on with Flagstaff.
• In Flagstaff, fires are a persistent problem. However, the city has partnered with the EPA and leveraged local tax dollars to protect forest health by creating the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project. The program protects water quality and reduces flooding issues and is made possible by partnerships.
• Nature-based solutions are palatable to the general public because they are often beautiful and improve quality of life.

Sughrue

• Partnerships can emerge as entities look to leverage funds from different sources as well as from taking a holistic view of the watershed. These partnerships help to multiply the benefits and reduce the costs.

Siler Jones

• The Smart Surfaces Coalition and Green Schoolyards Initiative are specific technical assistance programs where National League of Cities partners with communities.
• Collaborative governance where municipalities and grassroots organizations work together focuses efforts on what residents and organizations need from a project design through implementation and maintenance.

 

Q: How can small- and medium-sized cities take shifting demographics into account as they plan and implement nature-based solutions?

Siler Jones

• Climate migration dynamics are important to consider.
• Many cities are integrating nature-based solutions into development requirements, so they are considered as land-use decisions are made.
• For example, some cities are integrating climate resilience checklists within zoning laws while others include land-use requirements in agreements with affordable housing developers.

Pannell

• Greenbelt, Maryland, was the first federally-planned city to incorporate greenspace from the beginning, and Reston, Virginia, was the first post-World War II, privately-planned community to do so. When you get population change and strain on resources, cities like these that have prioritized greenspace from the start can more easily maintain it.

 

Q: How do you overcome opposition from communities that would benefit from trees but do not feel comfortable welcoming private or government intervention to accomplish those goals?

Pannell

• In the 1960s, the federal government removed many trees from majority Black communities in Detroit, citing “invasive species” as the issue. However, the community felt it was a plan to improve police surveillance.
• Years later, when groups like The Greening of Detroit arrived, there was natural distrust among residents. This underscores the need for community engagement with trusted partners. For example, in Baltimore, Maryland, American Forests is collaborating with the faith community, a trusted presence in that city, to better engage the residents there.
• People have traditional and cultural ties to certain trees, other nature-based solutions, and green space, so project implementers need to understand these relationships to build trust.

Siler Jones

• People and organizations looking to implement nature-based solutions in communities need to be adaptable and ready to change course after conversations with community leaders.

 

Q: How would you like to see the conversation around nature-based solutions shift or advance in the next couple of years?

Sughrue

• More conversation around the multiple benefits of nature-based solutions and improving ways to measure those benefits will help get more people on board.

Pannell

• Focusing on extreme heat year-round, not just in the summer months.
• It is important to highlight the bipartisan nature of this work. For example, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) championed the Outdoors for All Act (S.448/H.R.1065), and Rep. Cleaver highlighted the bipartisan TREES Act in his remarks. These solutions benefit districts regardless of their partisan leanings.

Siler Jones

• Acknowledging that there can be consequences in addition to co-benefits, such as nature-based solutions being a driver of displacement. These concerns need to be addressed if these solutions are to be for all and not just for those who can afford it.

 

Compiled by Lindsey Snyder and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.

 

Photos