Despite Growing Pains, a Good Night for Indianapolis' Urban Forests.

On Monday night, the Indianapolis City Council voted to approve the 2026 municipal budget. The meeting was highly contentious. For us in the movement to save urban forests, it seemed that another year would pass without decisive action on meaningful forest acquisition. But Indy residents got to work and raised hell over the weekend.

Both the Indianapolis Star and Mirror Indy declared us forest activists "losers" in the 2026 budget. It did feel like a loss at times, but that is why the forest movement went into overdrive to organize. It went from a loss to what I'd consider growing pains. However, several real positives emerged from the 2026 budget process for Indianapolis' forest. Let's examine how that happened.

Republican City Councilor Michael Paul Hart led the way by authoring a budget amendment to move $2 million in the budget to the Department of Public Works for forest acquisition. Forests for All and the Indiana Forest Alliance urged councilors to support the Hart Amendment.

Ultimately, only one Democrat, Councilor John Barth, voted in favor of Hart's bill. He was fiercely lobbied by constituents who asked him to support the budget amendment. Much thanks to Barth for voting Yes.

What happened next is that a majority of the Democratic Party Caucus released a statement thanking Hart for his forest advocacy, and the councilors vowed to take immediate action to move the forest acquisition project forward.

The Councilors made three commitments:

 every effort must be made to safeguard [the Eastside Flatwoods] 

[work] with the Mayor’s Office to identify new funding sources for forest preservation and land acquisition. This includes targeting future funds from the city’s 2025 year-end balance and 2026 spring allocation

[create] the city’s first dedicated, non-reverting fund for tree and forest preservation.

There are 25 Indianapolis City Councilors. The Democrats hold a supermajority, with 19 seats to 6. All six Republicans voted in favor of the Hart amendment. Hart himself, plus Paul Lannee, Michael Dilk, Brian Mowery, Josh Bain, and Derek Cahill. This put intense pressure on the Democrats to live up to their pro-environment beliefs.

Twelve Democrats who voted against the Hart amendment signed on to this statement: Jared Evans, Dan Boots, Brienne Delaney, Kristin Jones, Ron Gibson, Councilor Andy Nielsen, Frank Mascari, Ali Brown,  Carlos Perkins, Nick Roberts, Councilor Renee Allen, and Jessica McCormick

A thirteenth, John Barth, as noted above, voted for the Hart Amendment,

Two other Democrats, Jesse Brown and Crista Carlino, would also likely fully support the forest agenda.

The only four Councilors who remained quiet on the forests were Councillors Vop Osili, Maggie Lewis, Leroy Robinson, and Keith Graves. With such strong stated support for taking action on urban forests, we are approaching a 25-0 consensus that the time is now to take systemic action to save Indianapolis' urban forests.

What seemed impossible two years ago seems possible.

The movement to save Indianapolis' urban forests has become a powerful force for good within Marion County. What was an abstract and potentially hopeless policy question just two years ago, "why and how Indy should save its dwindling forests and tree canopy?" is now a systemic issue much closer to being solved.