A hatchet job is being taken to Arbor Day across the United States and Woodland — the “City of Trees” — might one day prune future tree plantings.

Woodland planted its 5,000th tree back in 2019 — on a rainy day no less — during an Arbor Day event at Campbell Park off Thomas Street. Interestingly, the valley oak was planted about 50 yards from where slain Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona planted a tree two years earlier. Corona died Jan. 10, 2019.

By 2021, the city, working with the Woodland Tree Foundation and others, had more than 16,000 public trees, up from 13,000 in 2010 due mainly to the city’s 2017 Climate Action Plan that identified the need to increase the town’s tree canopy to 25% by 2035. Those aren’t all the trees in Woodland, only the ones city-owned.

That doesn’t sound like much, but city officials reported in 2009 the average tree canopy cover was 6.9%. It increased to 14.5% in 2019.

But according to a story prepared by the Associated Press, the U.S. Forest Service has terminated $75 million awarded to the Arbor Day Foundation to help disadvantaged communities plant trees. All 105 of the foundation’s sub-awardees have lost funding.

The Forest Service announced its decision in mid-February, and it largely affects tree plantings in communities and neighborhoods which might not otherwise be able to afford them.

In New Orleans, part of the money was going to the environmental group Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, which had planted more than 1,600 trees in the historically Black community but has now paused plans for another 900.

And in Jackson County, Oregon, a $600,000 grant was pulled that would have gone toward replanting trees after wildfires in 2020 destroyed thousands of homes and charred more than 60,000 trees. The town of Talent lost two-thirds of its trees and the grant would have helped low-income and disadvantaged mobile home park residents — among the hardest-hit — identify and remove hazardous trees badly burned or killed, and replant trees for shade and cooling.

In total, 105 nonprofits, municipalities and Indigenous organizations have lost funding for environmental projects, the foundation said.

The Arbor Day Fund’s grant was part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which sent $1.5 billion to the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program. In a Feb. 14 email canceling the grant, the Forest Service wrote the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities.”

“Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority for the USDA and the Forest Service,” the agency said.

Now, I don’t know if Woodland would be considered a disadvantaged community. It’s possible that should Arbor Day funds be canceled locally, the Woodland Tree Foundation and the city itself would pick up the slack.

We all know the benefits of trees. They capture stormwater and replenish groundwater. They help clean the air in polluted areas, improve mental health, and cool air and surfaces, especially during heat waves that are growing more intense and frequent with climate change.

There will be two Arbor Day tree plantings this year in Woodland. The first is 11 a.m., Monday, March 10. A second is set for 8:30 a.m., Saturday, March 15. Both are at Rick Gonzales Sr. Park, but the March 15 planting will take place along County Road 25A.

Grab your gloves and a shovel. It could be the last time you get to plant a tree for the community.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.