Under our 47^th President, the sensible people in charge are looking at all of the spending in which the federal government engages. With the FY2024 federal budget deficit at $1.83 trillion — that’s trillion, a thousand billion, or a million million dollars — and FY2025 possibly going to be more, the Trump Administration is taking a battle axe to spending where it can, because a battle axe is what is needed. Tiny little cuts by going over everything with a fine-toothed comb will never work, because there’s always some purportedly good reason to spend for someone’s pet project. The battle axe method is the right thing to do, and then, after that is done, we can check to see if anything truly essential was cut and needs to be restored.

Trump administration freezes $12 million meant to help Philly plant thousands of trees

The Philly Tree Plan was designed to bring the tree canopy up to approximately 30% across neighborhoods.

by Frank Kummer | Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025 | 3:11 PM EST

Philadelphia had been relying on a $12 million federal grant to kick-start its ambitious Philly Tree Plan, a decadelong initiative aimed at expanding the city’s tree canopy.

However, the Trump administration has frozen the funds, Philly Tree Plan officials said Wednesday during a City Council committee hearing. It remains uncertain whether the money will ever be released or how the lack of funding will ultimately affect the program, which also receives support from the city and nonprofits.

The plan’s objective goes beyond beautifying the city. It prioritizes planting and maintaining trees in neighborhoods devoid of shade-providing canopies — areas that can be up to 20 degrees hotter than leafier sections during summer months.

The issue surfaced when Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of the Committee on the Environment, questioned officials about the status of the funding. Gauthier held the hearing on the plan to evaluate its progress.

If there’s one thing to which I do not object, it’s the planting of trees! At our previous home in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, we planted eight separate trees, though one failed, as many as the fairly long but narrow yard would support. Most weren’t big trees, though there is one red sunset maple which was about 18 feet tall when we sold the property, and two of them were dwarf Alberta spruce trees, which aren’t large at all. I like different colors, so we planted two weeping cherry trees, a white and a pink, but the pink one failed, and it was replaced by a red Japanese maple, which keeps its color throughout the leafy season.

Since buying our small farm, we have planted eleven trees, though, alas! the fruit trees we planted in a field we were going to call the orchard failed, because the ground there is too wet. 🙁 You can see three we planted, a pin oak, an ornamental pear, and a maple tree, in the photo to the right. There’s also a grapevine planted along the fence line, a bit difficult to see behind the trees near the fence, and the barest tip of a dwarf Alberta spruce at the very bottom.

And we planted them all on our own dime.

That’s how I see the angst in Ash Wednesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer: it doesn’t require a federal government handout to plant a tree! If I could do so in northeast Pennsylvania, and then in rural east central Kentucky, without a government check, why does Uncle Sam have to send $12 million to the City of Brotherly Love to plant trees?

I absotively, posilutely agree that the city could use more trees, more green space, but this is the kind of thing that the city, the school district, churches, and civic organizations could sponsor all on their own. The schools could pick a day in April or May, and have teachers get their charges out of the classroom and to places in which trees could be planted in neighborhoods. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, individual churches and individual families could buy the trees; if 1,000 families committed to buying just one tree apiece, that would be a thousand new trees! Pope Francis encyclical Laudato si’ is very much in line with such a project.

Greenhouses and garden centers could be hit up to donate some trees, and the city parks department could provide equipment for setting trees in places where hand-digging alone would be impractical. The labor unions could, and almost certainly would, provide voluntary labor for one Saturday of planting trees. Various city planners and arborists could select the different kinds of trees that would thrive and fit into various neighborhood aesthetics.  The University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum & Gardens could provide volunteer expertise and help. The Inquirer’s Will Bunch and Anna Orso and Helen Ubiñas and Frank Kummer could all take a turn with a shovel, and the newspaper’s photographers could document it all for us to see. Cecily Tyson and Karen Rogers could cover the story all across the city. Her Honor the Mayor could organize the whole thing.

Heck, I’d even drive the 550 miles from here to Philly just to plant a tree with Mr Bunch! But not every need or good thing has to be planned and funded by the federal government.