USDA i-Tree Funding Lapse

February 23, 2026

i-Tree is powered by you

The i-Tree Team wants to express sincere gratitude to all of you who have sent us messages of support, provided testimonials about the importance of i-Tree, and reached out to funders and policy makers. All your efforts are having an impact. As we continue to search for new funding sources and a sustainable funding model for i-Tree, we wanted to provide an update for our users.

i-Tree Partnership text box for funding lapse page

Where things stand:

The continued availability, development, and support of the i-Tree tools is currently funded entirely by grants for specific projects. This funding comes from the USDA Forest Service, Davey Tree Expert Company, individual states, as well as non-profit and for-profit collaborators. This means that you may see some updates to the tools as we finish these projects in the coming months. Once this funding is exhausted, our ability to provide future updates and any technical support may be severely limited. Under current funding we are unable to host our typical outreach and training events such as the i-Tree Open Academy and office hours, and our ability to integrate new data and locations is limited.

How you can contribute:

Maintaining our large and engaged user base through this challenging time is key to showing potential funders the value of the i-Tree tools. One way to keep supporting i-Tree is to continue to use the tools and provide clear attribution using the powered by i-Tree logo. Email us at info@itreetools.org to let us know how you are using the tools so that we can continue to share their importance with potential funders. To help you confidently continue your i-Tree work, our team is committed to providing a minimum of a 6-month warning before any of the core tools are taken off-line.

i-Tree stats 2025

Our goals :

We are working hard to find a new business model that continues our commitment to delivering the best tree benefits science to all users. i-Tree has been built on pillars of accessible software, the latest science and data, and top-notch free support to all our users. Finding funders and a strategy that maintains these pillars is our goal. We are hopeful that with your continued support we can emerge from this challenging time with a more sustainable funding strategy that supports even more i-Tree innovations in the future.

“This is extremely specific knowledge that small organizations would have no way of knowing without a software such as i-Tree.” Crystal, NJ Tree Foundation
“(i-Tree) helps to not only portray the benefits of tree canopy to decision makers but also helps the general public understand the value of tree plantings and maintaining current canopy cover, which is especially important in Texas, as a majority of our lands are privately owned.” i-Tree User, TX

December 5, 2025

What happened?

The cooperative agreement between the USDA Forest Service and the Davey Tree Expert Company, which typically funds the delivery of i-Tree, has been indefinitely halted. A new information technology policy at the agency means that traditional Forest Service funding streams for this partnership are no longer available. Without this funding, maintenance for i-Tree will be impacted and the tools could eventually cease to function.

The i-Tree team realizes this comes as sudden news, and the full impact of this policy change only recently became clear. While the tools themselves will not immediately disappear, we will be unable to update much of the data that drives the models, unable to conduct all the maintenance that keeps the tools and websites functioning properly, and unable to provide technical support at current levels.

The i-Tree team, Davey, and the Forest Service remain committed to developing and sharing the science of tree benefits. The partnership between the Forest Service and Davey has been a model of public-private collaboration and has consistently delivered Forest Service science to forestry professionals and engaged community members in pursuit of this goal. While we are working to explore all possible avenues for replacement funding to continue this work, realistically this funding loss will immediately begin to impact delivery of the i-Tree tools.

What can I do?

The success of i-Tree has always been driven by the success of our users. If you’ve come to depend on i-Tree for your work, and you believe in the value of these tools, please consider sharing how you rely on i-Tree with the Chief of the USDA Forest Service, your State Forester, and your congressional representative.

We thank you for all of your contributions to i-Tree and sincerely hope to continue developing and delivering these tools if funding becomes available. You can currently reach us at info@treetools.org.