Some wore beige hats and light blue T-shirts, while others donned green armbands and carried signs that said “Forests for Indy.”
The dozens of environmental advocates came to the City-County Building on Monday, Sept. 22, to ask councilors to find money in the 2026 budget to preserve what’s left of Indy’s dwindling urban forests.
“You have to buy them today because they won’t be here tomorrow,” said Jeff Stant, an eastside resident and former director of the Indiana Forest Alliance. “They’ll have been consumed by development.”
Stant and other members of the alliance’s Forests for Indy are urging the City-County Council to go all in for urban forest acquisition in the city’s $1.7 billion budget.
One of them is Jocelyn Mappes, a Perry Township resident who also spoke out this year against a southside housing development that could replace as much as 60 acres of forest.
“As councilors, you are stewards of the city,” Mappes said. “The forests aren’t just trees, they’re natural infrastructure that keep our neighborhoods cooler, reduce flooding, clean water, improve air quality and give both families and wildlife a safe place to live.”
Despite the group’s strong showing, it’s unclear if forest funding will make it into next year’s spending plan.
“We will consider everything that we heard this evening over the course of these next two weeks,” Council President Vop Osili, a Democrat, told Mirror Indy after the council meeting.
When asked to comment, a spokesperson for Mayor Joe Hogsett said that the capital plan for the Department of Public Works allocates $4 million for urban forest and land conservation over the next four years.
Councilors are expected to vote on the budget at their Oct. 6 meeting.
An ongoing fight
The outspoken nature advocates have been a regular presence at City-County Council meetings for more than a year.
The group’s 2024 campaign calling on Hogsett and the council to earmark $6 million for urban forest conservation yielded some results.
Councilors passed a symbolic resolution calling on the Hogsett administration to include funding in the 2025 budget, and the Department of Public Works set aside $1 million in a land acquisition fund, some of which was used to purchase an urban forest just south of Grassy Creek Regional Park on the far east side.
And when all 25 councilors were given $1 million to spend on a project of their choice, two of them — Paul Annee and Brienne Delaney — chose to spend it on urban forest acquisition, though both efforts have stalled.
Forests for Indy is asking the city to set aside an additional $3 million to protect areas like the eastside flatwoods, a 76-acre area near Post Road and Rawles Avenue that is considered the largest unprotected urban forest in Marion County.
Stant said that city leaders have said for years that there is no room in the city’s budget for forest acquisition. But he doesn’t buy that line of reasoning.
“When you’re continually finding room for other priorities, we are left to conclude what is really missing is your political will to make the preservation of nature a priority in Indianapolis,” Stant said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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