Trees Forever awarded federal grant to expand agroforestry in Iowa

The Marion-based nonprofit Trees Forever has been selected for a federal grant to accelerate tree conservation work across Iowa.

Trees Forever has received one of six Land Scale Restoration grants — which fund projects tackling large-scale forest threats like wildfires and invasive species — from the U.S. Forest Service.

Jeff Jensen, director of community programs with Trees Forever, said the grant will fund outreach to landowners, local governments and land management agencies to help strengthen agroforestry practices statewide.

Agroforestry includes combining agriculture and forestry practices to create more “integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agroforestry can entail forest farming, where crops can be grown under an existing forest canopy; alley cropping, where crops are grown in “alleys” between rows of trees or shrubs; and creating windbreaks, riparian forest buffers and living snow fences.

“More than 24 million acres — roughly 70 percent of Iowa’s land area — are devoted to crops, and over 90 percent of that land is used for corn and soybeans. This intensive production system leaves fields bare for much of the year, increasing soil erosion and nutrient runoff,” Trees Forever stated in a press release announcing the grant project. “Agroforestry offers a practical and proven way to address these challenges by integrating trees and shrubs into agricultural systems to protect soil, water, and wildlife while maintaining or even increasing productivity.”

Jensen said the grant is an avenue to implement more agroforestry practices around the state.

“We see this as a great opportunity to continue the momentum of landowners learning and doing agroforestry where it fits on their farms,” he said in an initial press release from Trees Forever on Jan. 21.

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About the grant

Jensen said Trees Forever applied for the Service’s Land Scale Restoration grant twice — once in 2023 and was not selected — before being chosen in 2024.

He said that both proposals were focused on agroforestry.

“We were very pleased that it came home to roost, so to speak,” Jensen said.

In total, the national Forest Service is supporting the nonprofit’s agroforestry work by funding $367,788 over the course of three years, ending in the first half 2028.

Jensen said the funding will go toward “promoting agroforestry and getting the word out there about the practices and some of the crops,” like fruits, vegetables and grains, mushrooms and nuts.

With the funding, Jensen said it also will go toward workshops and training for farmers, producers and landowners to attend to learn more about agroforestry.

He said there will be nine workshops in 2026 and another round in 2027.

Jensen said Trees Forever also will coordinate field days and farm crawls, so landowners can learn about agroforestry in person.

“Field days are an opportunity for folks to get up close and personal and just see how the practices and the crops are growing from the landowners that are doing it,” Jensen said. “They can ask all sorts of questions.”

On top of outreach and increasing education around agroforestry, Jensen said Trees Forever will put forth some of their grant funding toward planting trees in various rural communities across the state.

He said the nonprofit still is working to identify which rural communities will receive trees to plant, but that they will be smaller towns, where more green infrastructure is needed, like tree windbreaks to slow wind speeds.

“Agroforestry is a lesser-known land management strategy, but certainly with the practices, it's got a lot of potential to get roots in the ground all year long, which is so important for water quality and those types of things,” Jensen said.

Jensen said that the grant project is not connect to ReLeaf Cedar Rapids — the city’s multi-million-dollar tree replanting effort after the 2020 derecho that knocked out much of Cedar Rapids’ tree canopy — but that the two programs “complement each other.”

We’re “obviously really excited to get started,” Jensen said.

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com