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Thanks to Danielle Watson, Assistant Director of Government Affairs & External Relations for the Society of American Foresters, for this legislative update (10/24/17) on the federal Urban and Community Forestry budget for FY 2018.

In his budget proposal earlier this year, the President had zeroed out funding for UCF. However, the House Interior Appropriations bill subsequently specified near-level funding for Urban and Community Forestry. Then the bill went to the Senate Appropriations Committee (no current members of that committee are from NYS).

The Senate still has not released its budget numbers, but we are anticipating that they will be less than the House numbers for Urban & Community Forestry. Recall, the House numbers were only slightly under FY17 levels—which was a big win.

The Senate numbers will come out, and then the House and Senate will be negotiating a year-end budget deal, so really any time between now and December is a good time to check in with your House member and your Senators, letting them know that you support FY17 levels of funding for Urban and Community Forestry.