The Brief

The Trump administration's efforts to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs have hit an unexpected target: In February, communities around the country learned that funding was canceled for a nationwide tree-planting program aimed at making neighborhoods cooler, healthier and more resilient to climate change.

The urban forestry initiative, administered by the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation, was supposed to distribute $75 million in grant funding to about 100 cities, nonprofit organizations and tribes to plant shade trees in neighborhoods that need them the most. The program was funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included big investments in climate initiatives.

In a letter terminating the contract, the U.S. Forest Service stated the program "no longer aligns with agency priorities regarding diversity, equity and inclusion." The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, said in an emailed statement that the agency was complying with President Trump's executive orders.

The Arbor Day Foundation was surprised by the sudden cancellation, said Executive Director Dan Lambe.

"This was hugely disappointing," Lambe said. "It was an exciting opportunity for us to work with organizations and communities all across the country to plant trees in communities, to create jobs, to create economic benefits, to create conservation benefits, to help create cooler, safer, and healthier communities."

Rebuilding the canopy lost to Katrina

Driving around the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Arthur Johnson pointed out the abundance of concrete and vacant lots. The whole city gets hot in the summer, he said, but in this neighborhood, there's hardly any tree shade to provide relief.

"Last summer was bad, worse than normal, but the summer before that was extremely bad, where we had no rain and extreme heat, " said Johnson, CEO of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. "Without trees to filter some of that heat, it's just unbearable."

Trees are proven to reduce heat in cities, take up stormwater when it rains and improve air quality — all important needs in New Orleans as climate change intensifies storms and raises temperatures.

Volunteers planted trees in January in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Trees can help protect neighborhoods from extreme heat and air pollution.

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The city still hasn't recovered the estimated 200,000 trees lost to Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. That lack of canopy is visible in the Lower 9th Ward, a majority Black neighborhood and one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.

Johnson's organization was helping plant some 1,600 trees in the neighborhood when the funding was suddenly canceled. The project was managed by the New Orleans nonprofit Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, or SOUL, which had been awarded a $1 million grant from the Forest Service.

SOUL's executive director, Susannah Burley, said she found it absurd to cancel the funding as an equity program.

"That has nothing to do with this grant funding. The word 'equity' is pervasive in the grants that were funded by this, but in a totally different context," Burley said, adding that in this context, equity meant planting trees in neighborhoods without them.

"Funding would have allowed us to finish planting the Lower 9th Ward, which is a really big deal," Burley said. "That'll be the third neighborhood that we've planted every street."

That would have made significant progress towards a citywide goal to reach 10% tree canopy coverage in every neighborhood, as part of an effort to combat the urban heat island effect, reduce flooding, take up carbon and slow down subsidence.

As CEO of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Arthur Johnson is trying to get the community to see the value in tree planting.

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Arthur Johnson

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For Johnson, the sudden reversal has been frustrating. It undermines the trust his organization has built over years in a community that has historically been left behind, he said.

"You try to get people to have some confidence into what's going on in the environment and what's going on in the community and government," Johnson said.

Anti-DEI push hits environmental justice programs 

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending federal programs and grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion, which it called discriminatory and wasteful.

The order required agencies to provide a list of all DEI programs, including programs related to environmental justice. And it ordered agencies to terminate "'equity' actions, initiatives, or programs" and "'equity-related' grants or contracts."

The $75 million tree-planting program was part of the Biden administration's Justice40 initiative, which aimed to direct more resources to "disadvantaged communities." The administration defined those as areas that were generally lower-income and faced more pollution, based on factors such as health, housing, transportation and workforce development.

Susannah Burley, executive director of the New Orleans nonprofit Saving Our Urban Landscape, spoke to volunteers helping plant trees in the Lower 9th Ward on January 20, 2025. Soon after that, the U.S. Forest Service canceled funding for the program.

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Ladd Keith, director of the Heat Resilience Initiative at the University of Arizona, said trees are a worthy investment. Research shows they can return more financially than their cost, through lower energy bills, lower health costs and higher property values.

"Not everything can be couched under a DEIA language kind of lens," Keith said. "Grants like this are part of the responsibility of the federal government to help communities advance their interests and their progress."

He argued there are good reasons to focus planting in specific areas.

"Our governments historically have disinvested in low-income communities, and so it's our responsibility to make that right now," Keith said. "These grants allocated to these lower-income communities to plant trees would have done a little bit of justice, in bringing that urban canopy back up to more on par with higher-income neighborhoods."

Cuts felt from Louisiana to Oregon 

The cancellation hit communities across the country, including in Oregon, California, Montana and Tennessee.

In Talent, Oregon, Mike Oxendine runs Our Community Forestry. The tiny nonprofit was promised $600,000 to replace canopy lost to the Almeda Wildfire in 2020.

"We spent a year of our time as volunteers writing this grant proposal to do this work here that nobody else is doing," Oxendine said.

Volunteer James Herman gets ready to plant a tree in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward in January. The project was one of about a hundred nationwide chosen by the U.S. Forest Service and the Arbor Day Foundation to receive funding under a $75 million federal grant.

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The nonprofit planned to focus much of its planting in mobile home parks, which were some of the areas slowest to recover after the fire.

Oxedine said he doesn't understand why the program was cut.

"As an all-volunteer organization, we're putting those dollars to the highest possible use, and the return on investment is so big," he said.

In Butte, Montana, the city was expecting nearly $800,000 from the program, said Trevor Peterson, the town's sole urban forester. The grant would have allowed Butte to replace hazardous dead trees, while also staffing up the urban forestry department.

"If I died tomorrow, I want to know that the urban forest is going to continue to survive and thrive," Peterson said. "This grant would have made a huge impact in that regard."

Peterson said he's looking for other funding, and working with local organizations to get a few trees removed for free.

In New Orleans, Arthur Johnson said the loss of federal grant money might slow down the work, but won't stop it. His organization will work with SOUL to find other sources of funding and plant just a few trees at a time.

"We've gone through Katrina 20 years ago now, amazingly, where people felt hopeless, but they didn't give up," Johnson said. "The people who came here, who lived here, who came back, who didn't leave, who had losses, but they still feel like it was worth it."

"And so that's what we want to do, and that's what we're going to continue to build," he said.

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The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Destiny Torres

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.