12 months ago
WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- What's in a name? For one non-profit organization, nearly $3 million.
A group of lawmakers are pushing to take back a federal stimulus grant awarded to a local organization for forest health initiatives. The grant, in the amount of $2.8 million, was awarded to Washington Parks and People through D.C.'s Department of Transportation's Urban Forestry Administration. The money covered under what was dubbed a "Wildland Fire Management" fund recently caused a stir in the Senate.
""The last major fire in D.C. was likely lit by British troops in 1814," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who is leading Western lawmakers' effort to strip the city of the money. "There are many wasteful and wild schemes born in Washington, but this takes the cake."
But the problem may just lie in bad wording. Half of that "Wildland Fire Management" fund was set aside "for State and private forestry activities including ecosystem improvement," said a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"No Recovery Act funds could be used to fight fires," said Caleb Weaver, USDA Press Secretary. "Some of these funds were designated for efforts in National Forests, others for State and private lands around the country, including the funds in question here."
The uproar over semantics may just cost Washington Parks and People a dream they'd been reaching to achieve since the group was founded in 1990 on a wing and a prayer. Two decades later and thousand of volunteers have transformed several city parks, including Marvin Gaye in NE where a farmers market has now replaced a heroin market.
"We applied for a stimulus grant to support boosting green job training and environmental justice advancement in inner city DC," said founder Steve Coleman. "Our understanding was that there were funds allocated for urban and community forestry and inner city needs that has been long underserved specifically to address unemployment problems from a green jobs perspective."
Coleman is concerned that the legislative confusion will hurt the group's plan to continue with DC Green Corps. The program places youth from underserved areas into area parks. They're trained in ecological matters and then tasked with keeping and building the neglected public spaces.
"Community forestry is not about these places that are millions of acres away from where people live," said Coleman. "It's where we live. It's tree boxes in front of our homes. Its the little playgrounds and parks. And it's not just about the trees, it's about the habitats, the watershed and places where our children can not even touch the stream water because its unsafe for human contact."
The recovery act was designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy, adds Weaver.
"D.C. has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country," he said.
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