Rapid City foresters fight for more trees

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is awarding $1 billion in competitive grants to plant more trees across all 50 states.

According to the USDA, this grant process is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Grants are made possible through Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

A forestry supervisor for Rapid City, Jason Preble, said they are focusing on the under-served areas with the funds they may receive from the grant.

”It’s not about how many trees you have. The way they are trying to get this done based on the need within some of the lesser served parts of our community, and Rapid City has a pretty large area of under-served areas,” Preble said.

Preble says they have until Oct. 13 to apply for the funds.

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