Next Friday is the deadline for  Iowa’s cities, counties and groups like the Boy Scouts to apply for state grants to plant trees as part of the recovery process from last year’s derecho. The state legislature is allocating 250-thousand dollars for the Derecho Community Forestry Grant Program. Gabriele Edwards, an urban forestry program specialist at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the grants range from $500 to $5,000 and are to be used to buy and plant trees suitable to Iowa on publicly-owned lands. That can include all sorts of places like street right-of-ways, parks, school grounds, courthouse lawns, fairgrounds, cemeteries, libraries and trails. Trees are an underrated commodity, Edwards says, and few people seem to appreciate them until they’re gone.

She says Iowa is overplanted with maples and people should consider other options, including the black locust, honey locust and hackberry trees. Grant recipients are required to provide a dollar-for-dollar cash match as part of the program.