The Morton Arboretum

The Morton Arboretum, a non-profit research and conservation organization headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, acts as a federal grant recipient delivering forest health protection, invasive species detection and outreach, urban and community forestry, and tree science education and research across federal agencies. The organization competes full-and-open as a non-profit entity; it holds 97% of its federal awards as a prime recipient and 3% as a sub-recipient under university-led initiatives.

The Arboretum's federal grant footprint centers on the Department of Agriculture and its regional components. The top five customer agencies account for 69% of recent awards: the Department of Agriculture Forest Service (24 awards), the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (24 awards), and the Department of Agriculture Forest Service R9-Eastern Region (23 awards) together represent the dominant customer base, with the National Science Foundation and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science accounting for 7 awards each. The two rankings converge around USDA dominance across both volume and dollar exposure. Combined obligations across 124 awards span $49.7 million over a thirty-year award history, reflecting sustained federal investment in the Arboretum's capabilities.

Representative prime-recipient work includes a $15 million Inflation Reduction Act Urban & Community Forestry Program grant (CFDA 10.727) awarded April 2024 by USDA Forest Service R9 for planning, establishing, managing, and protecting trees and green spaces in underserved urban communities across Illinois through February 2029; a $1.545 million Urban and Community Forestry Program Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 10.675) awarded August 2024 by USDA Forest Service for comprehensive assessment of reforestation nursery and genetic resource inventories running through September 2027; a $820 thousand Cooperative Forestry Assistance project grant (CFDA 10.664) from USDA Forest Service R9 awarded July 2025 for oak ecosystem recovery across five northeastern Illinois counties, with sub-awards to the Forest Preserve Districts of Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties, Openlands, and The Land Conservancy of McHenry County; and a $111 thousand APHIS Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 10.025) awarded September 2026 for invasive forest pest outreach and citizen reporting training, with $70.2 thousand in personnel costs and $19.7 thousand in fringe. The Arboretum also holds a $460 thousand Forest Health Protection grant (CFDA 10.680) from USDA Forest Service for an early detection network using public gardens and arboreta, and a $697.8 thousand National Leadership Grants for Museums award (CFDA 45.312) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop horticulture staff training tools and eLearning curricula. Federal grant funding extends beyond forestry to basic research—the Arboretum holds an NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site award supporting eight-student summer research programs in integrative tree science through October 2026.

Activity has remained stable at 9 to 11 awards per year from 2022 through 2024, with a decline to 4 and 2 awards in 2025 and 2026 respectively; however, the source captures only the most recent months of 2026. Four awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing limited near-term recompete exposure. In its sub-recipient capacity, the Arboretum serves Iowa State University on Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plant monitoring (February 2024) and the University of Vermont under an Indigenous Forest Knowledge Fund award (September 2024). Performance locations span Illinois and the Midwest region with emphasis on the Chicago area and northeastern Illinois counties, reflecting the Arboretum's regional anchor role in USDA Forest Service's Eastern Region priorities for forest health, invasive species management, and urban forestry capacity building.