A high-ranking Biden Administration official, Tom Perez, visited Milwaukee’s south side on Friday, April 19, to highlight the city's recent $12 million urban forestry grant.
Tom Perez is a former U.S. Labor Secretary who now serves as President Biden’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.
He says the money will help pay for planting more trees, tree maintenance, depaving school yards and businesses and increasing the city’s urban forestry workforce.
Perez’s visit comes just half a year before President Biden is counting on a large voter turnout in Milwaukee to help him win reelection against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
At a news event at 15th and Scott, WUWM asked Perez how a better tree canopy will make a difference for city residents.
Perez says, “An attractive tree canopy allows to breathe cleaner air. It’s a climate change imperative. It’s a nice workforce imperative—to have our city residents, our city employees, being part of the transformation of our communities. This is what community is about. We want safe, affordable, tree-lined communities that will give us the thrill of having neighborhoods.”
Milwaukee forestry services manager Randy Krouse says about 25% of the city has tree cover, with the canopy percentage higher in some neighborhoods and lower in others.
Under a directive from the Biden Administration, all of the work covered by the federal money will take place in disadvantaged areas of the city.
During Perez’s visit, he joined Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Common Council President Jose Perez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley to walk a block of Scott St. where city arborist apprentices had climbed more than a dozen feet to prune branches.
Tom Perez says about one apprentice, “I take it he doesn’t have acrophobia (fear of heights) because I couldn’t do that.”
Krouse told Perez that the city trains its arborist apprentices for up to four years on tree climbing technique, tree identification and tree biology.
The apprentice Perez viewed, Robin Cassar, later told WUWM that he had served nearly two years as an apprentice. He looks forward to moving up the professional ladder to become a journeyman.
