John Pennington, extension water quality educator for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, has secured $1.6 million in grant funding to plant more than 166,000 native trees throughout six counties in central Arkansas over the next three and a half years.
The Central Arkansas Tree Planting Project began with a grant-funding program from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, initiated under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Grant funding was allocated to Metroplan, a federally designated metropolitan planning organization for central Arkansas.
“This grant is increasing watershed management capacity as part of the Arkansas Watershed Steward program,” Pennington said. “Without the AWS, there would not be this project.”…