Skokie to plant 1,000 trees, but federal funds may be in jeopardy

Rain and wind did not deter the village of Skokie’s inaugural tree planting of a co-federally funded trees program on Monday morning outside of a mosque. The federal dollars in question, however, do leave questions for Skokie officials about whether the incoming U.S. president could freeze those funds.

Village officials and leaders from the Masjid Madinatul Uloom mosque, the environmental organization Green Latinos and the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke about the community’s needs for trees and how they can mitigate flooding and provide cleaner air and shade.

The program provides for planting more than  1,000 trees over five years in village-owned, public and private properties in areas of the village designated by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening tool as being disadvantaged. The areas cover census tracts mainly on Skokie’s south half, south of Dempster Street.

The program is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the village. The village secured a $327,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2023 and will also contribute $330,000 to fund the project.

“In Islam, planting trees is an act of goodness that benefits everyone: people, animals and the environment,” said Imam Syed Ahmed Ali. “It is a reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the earth and to leave it better for future generations.”

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen boasted that the village has been awarded a Tree City U.S.A. designation every year for 40 years, and that the village is dedicated to its environmental goal of increasing tree canopy in the village from 25.5% to 31% by 2031.

“I needn’t remind any of you that trees provide a multitude of environmental and health benefit and they’re at the root of cleaner, greener neighborhoods,” Van Dusen said.

Van Dusen said the trees the village will plant will be at no cost to property owners. Single family homes are not eligible to receive a tree from this program, even if they live in one of the designated census tracts, according to previous reporting.

Whether the village will be able to carry out the full program, however, could be a challenge when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. In 2019, Trump said he would withhold federal funding for municipalities and states that put limits on local police departments working with immigration officials.

The U.S. Court of Appeals struck down Trump’s efforts on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

In 2019, Skokie amended its municipal code to create immigrant safe zones for healthcare facilities, schools and universities, and was the first municipality in the state to do so, according to previous reporting. Its Village Board also approved limiting local police involvement with federal immigration enforcement.

In response to Pioneer Press’ question regarding whether federal funding could be in jeopardy if Trump were to try to do something similar in his next term, Van Dusen said, “I’m taking a ‘wait-and-see’ (approach), but from the tone of the president (elect’s) rhetoric, it’s concerning.”

“I want to wait and see exactly what the implications are for municipalities,” Van Dusen said. 

“We will try and come up with some kind of contingency plan,” said Van Dusen. “What that will involve, I don’t know, because I don’t know exactly what the president (elect) is thinking, but we’ll follow it very closely.”