ST. LOUIS – The city government is hiring contractors to plant, prune and remove thousands of trees in the city as part of an effort to increase tree cover in “vulnerable areas subject to extreme heat.”

The work is the result of an $8 million grant to the city’s forestry department from federal funds provided under the Inflation Mitigation Act. The money must be spent in “disadvantaged” areas identified by the government based on socioeconomic data.

In St. Louis, this includes almost the entire city north of Delmar Boulevard, as well as the areas around downtown and some southern parts of the city, such as Dutchtown.

The effort aims to help address the unbalanced impacts and benefits of tree cover that often fall along racial lines. Nationwide studies have shown that tree cover in cities generally corresponds with race and income—wealthier, whiter areas tend to have more trees than poorer areas where more residents are racial minorities.

The city’s deadline for submitting bids from contractors ended late last month. Once the city signs a contract with one or more contractors, the work involved will include planting about 2,700 trees and cutting down about 1,600 “dangerous and diseased” trees over the next two years – part of a roughly 2:1 replacement goal set by the city’s Forestry Department.

The selected contractor will also be responsible for tree maintenance, such as pruning a total of about 7,200 trees over a five-year period – generally to remove dead wood that poses a potential hazard.

Experts and extensive research tout the benefits of urban trees that go far beyond beautification. Urban trees are good for air quality and public health, promote the mental health of residents, reduce flood risk by absorbing and slowing water, and can even help calm traffic.

“A tree-lined street slows down traffic,” Jankowski said.

Meanwhile, St. Louis’s grant is focusing on how trees can help mitigate extreme heat, especially in urban areas where paved surfaces can dramatically exacerbate the heat – a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect because temperatures in a city can be much higher than in surrounding areas.

Even within the same city, temperature differences can be 15 to 25 degrees, according to studies across the United States that have examined the large temperature differences between shady parts of a city and heavily paved areas where there are few trees.

Improving urban tree canopies is seen as a particularly important step as greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere and make heatwaves more frequent – ​​which in turn increases the risk and exposure of urban residents to extreme heat.

“The heat island effect is always at the top. That’s one of the main problems, especially at this time of year,” said Jankowski. And he added: “It gets worse every year.”

Trees in the St. Louis region, like elsewhere, face a combination of recent threats. Invasive pests like the Asian ash beetle have necessitated large-scale, long-term removal of St. Louis’s widespread ash trees. Past diseases like Dutch elm disease wiped out the city’s once-common elms. And current plagues like oak gall are stressing the region’s oaks.

“We don’t just plant these trees there,” said Alan Jankowski, the city’s forestry officer. “We also take care of them by mulching and watering them, which is critical to the survival of these trees.”

The work is expected to produce even greater benefits that go far beyond combating the heat, and it would also “significantly increase” the current pace of tree work in the city, Jankowski said.

“This will definitely accelerate our removal and circumcision rates,” he said.

Despite the current challenges, Jankowski believes that the city’s tree canopy has remained stable overall and has “remained roughly the same” during his eight years as forestry commissioner.

He added that while the work supported by the federal grant would focus on disadvantaged areas, normal tree planting and maintenance would continue in other parts of the city according to city funds.

“We’re going to continue with business as usual, but we’re going to add this subsidy,” he said. “That’s the exciting thing about it.”