Healthy Urban Tree Canopy Program

HEALTHY URBAN TREE CANOPY PROGRAM

The Healthy Urban Tree Canopy (HUTC) Program is an initiative of Cuyahoga County to promote a healthy tree canopy in our county which has provided grant funds for tree planning, planting, and maintenance projects. It is a collaborative effort between the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, the Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability, and Cuyahoga SWCD.

Since 2019 the HUTC grant program has awarded more than $4.75 million in funding support to municipalities, community development corporations, and other non-profits to help protect, restore, and maintain trees across Cuyahoga County. To date more than 11,000 new trees have been planted through the HUTC grant program.

In 2025, the HUTC Program will be shifting from a reimbursable grant-based model to a contracted services model. Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD), through resolution from its Board of Supervisors, will be administering the HUTC funds in Program Year 2025 (PY2025) and executing contracts on behalf of program participants to perform tree planning, planting, and maintenance activities. This programmatic change aims to improve efficiency and impact of the HUTC program, while reducing barriers and burdens to program applicants and awardees.

Program Year 2025 Project Awards

In Program Year 2025, 54 eligible applications from 43 unique applicants were submitted for project funding support through the Cuyahoga County Healthy Urban Tree Canopy (HUTC) Program. Thanks to financial support from the City of Cleveland’s Inflation Reduction Act Urban & Community Forestry Program Grant, the top 28 ranked applicants will receive financial support for their tree canopy projects. This year the HUTC Program will fund the following types of projects, which include approximately 1,475 new trees planted, and 2,500 trees maintained:

HUTC PY 2025 Funded Projects:

16 Tree Planting Projects

11 Tree Maintenance Projects

3 Urban Forestry Planning Projects

Priority was given to project applications from areas with low tree canopy cover and falling within Cuyahoga County Equity Zones.

NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) – PY2025 CUYAHOGA COUNTY HEALTHY URBAN TREE CANOPY PROGRAM

Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) is soliciting proposals from pre-qualified vendors to perform tree acquisition and planting activities to implement tree planting projects under the Cuyahoga County Healthy Urban Tree Canopy PY2025 Program.

Proposals are due to Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District either in person at their offices located at 3311 Perkins Avenue, Suite 100, Cleveland, OH 44114 or by email to [email protected] no later than 12:00PM local time on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, or as may be amended by written Addenda, for the following projects:

Tree Acquisition & Planting Activities (click for full project RFP)

Tree Maintenance Activities (click for full project RFP)

Urban Forestry Planning Activities (click for full project RFP)

Links to Excel Versions of Cost Proposal Forms:

HUTC PY2025 Cost Proposal Form – Tree Acquisition & Planting Activities – updated

HUTC PY2025 Cost Proposal Form – Tree Maintenance Activities – updated

HUTC PY2025 Cost Proposal Form – Urban Forestry Planning Activities

Pre-Proposal Meeting:

A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 10:00am local time. All qualified Proposers will be sent the Zoom meeting link via email. Proposers are responsible for contacting Jared Bartley via email at [email protected] no later than Monday, November 17, 2025 if they have not received the Zoom meeting link.

A recording of the Pre-Proposal Meeting may be viewed by clicking here and entering the following Passcode: ME4^S^C&

Questions:

Questions by prospective proposers concerning this project should be emailed to [email protected], by 5:00pm local time on Monday, December 1, 2025. No questions will be taken after this time or through any other means of contact.

The Question and Answer document for this RFP may be accessed by clicking here.  The most recent update is November 25, 2025.