EPA cancels $500,000 grant to Bartram’s Garden for urban tree planting

Federal officials notified Bartram’s Garden on Wednesday that a competitive $500,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant they received last year had been terminated. The EPA assistance agreement grant would support 50 paid youth internships as well as the planting of 200 trees and 120 home gardens in Southwest Philadelphia.

“The idea is that the garden would now be able to reach into the neighborhood with these resources,” said Maitreyi Roy, executive director of Bartram’s Garden. “This is a way for people to connect with nature in a neighborhood that has very little nature in it, to make their community safer and healthier.” Last spring, the grant funded planting 25 new trees in Kingsessing.

The cut comes as Bartram’s was preparing for a new planting and community greening season and the hiring of this season’s 50 high school students, Roy said.

“We were told that our work was to be terminated because the grant is terminated,” Roy said.

The email they received from EPA officials in Washington — which also notified the Philly EPA office of the cuts — did not provide a reason for their decision, Roy said. The email said the agency has updated its standard grant agreement terms and could now terminate any awards that no longer effectuate their goals or priorities, according to Roy.

Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokesperson, said, “As with any change in Administration, the agency is reviewing its grant funding to ensure it is appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with Administration priorities.”

Roy said she did not know the grant was in danger.

“Our Environmental Protection Agency — and I want to pause on the name — is no longer valuing adding shade trees and providing access to food in city neighborhoods and is no longer concerned with helping these young people prepare for opportunities in the environment,” Roy said. “I have to laugh, but I also feel like I’m gonna cry, because this is so bonkers. I don’t know what else you say but bonkers.”

The grant’s termination comes as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency continue to drastically shrink the federal workforce through layoffs and hiring freezes, attack DEI initiatives, and cut essential programming. At least three Philadelphia-area EPA workers have been laid off amid the cuts, according to the union that represents them. An additional 14 local EPA employees performing environmental justice work have also been put on leave. Last week, NPR reported that a $75 million Forestry Service initiative to plant trees in urban areas — part of a program started under President Joe Biden “which aimed to direct more resources to “disadvantaged communities” — had also been defunded.

Roy is trying to determine if Bartram’s can appeal.

“We are now in touch with our elected officials and other partners,” she said. “We’ve been looking at the paperwork the EPA gave us to see what the appeal process is.”

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents West and Southwest Philadelphia, said the decision to kill the grant “represents more of the same” from the Trump administration.

“We’re seeing President Trump do more and more to hurt Philadelphians’ wallets and our health,” she said.

The jobs and greening programming were critical in the neighborhoods around the garden, she said.

“This is a community that doesn’t have adequate tree cover,” she said. “That means that people who live in this community could feel as much as 20 degrees hotter than folks who live in communities that are whiter and that are wealthier.”

The gardening jobs would keep young people off the streets and provide invaluable job training, said Gauthier.

“This program was teaching young people skills around planting and maintaining gardens that they could use for the rest of their lives,” she said, adding that she will look to see if the city could help supplement some of the lost funding.

Bartram’s hopes to use some other available funds to hire most of the 50 students for the summer, Roy said.

“I think it’ll be more like 40 or so,” she said. “We’ll have to scale it back, but I’m really eager not to lose any of our young students.”

While appealing the EPA’s decision, Roy said Bartram’s will look for other funding to continue the plantings and community greening efforts.

“This was really going to take it to a new level,” she said. “We’ll have to work harder.”