Newark Receives $8M Grant To Plant 2,700 Trees as City Battles Extreme Heat

The U.S. Forest Service awarded Newark’s Tree Canopy Initiative $8 million to plant 2,700 trees throughout New Jersey’s biggest city. Workers have already put nearly 400 trees in the ground and trained dozens more to plant and maintain them.

Climate Central published findings in 2024 that ranked Newark and New York City as having the nation’s worst urban heat island effects. People living there endure an extra 9 degrees on top of actual air temperatures because of their surroundings. Around 97% of Newark’s population lives where urban heat indexes climb more than 8 degrees above normal.

This week’s late May heat wave slammed the city hard. Artur Cesar has called the Ironbound neighborhood home for about 15 years. His air conditioning never stops running during stretches like this one.

“It’s on, the air conditioning, all the time,” Cesar said, according to the Gothamist.

The Nature Conservancy runs the tree initiative alongside groups like the Ironbound Community Corporation. Johnny Quispe directs the Nature Conservancy’s cities programs. He says urban forestry offers one of the best answers to extreme heat problems.

“Our cities are at the front line of climate change,” Quispe said. “We know that extreme heat in these areas is a critical public health issue. And urban forestry, I believe, is one of the most effective scalable solutions we have for this.”

Researchers at Rowan University partnered with the Nature Conservancy on a 2022 study. They discovered that just 15% of Newark has tree cover. The distribution varies wildly — Forest Hills enjoys far more shade than the Ironbound does.

Greg Pope teaches Earth and environmental sciences at Montclair State University. He’s spent years studying urban heat islands across New Jersey. Trees cool things down by providing shade, soaking up sunlight, and releasing moisture into the air around them.

Earlier this year, the state Board of Public Utilities gave Newark $500,000 to rebuild Hennessy Street Park in the Ironbound. That money will bring new cooling systems and plants to the park. It’s part of a $5 million statewide push to fund projects that fight urban heat.

Mayor Ras Baraka started his Rooted in Newark initiative last year. The goal is to plant 5,000 new trees across the city over the next ten years.

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