The Wisconsin DNR urban and community forestry (U&CF) program offers assistance to communities in order to increase their capacity to manage their urban and community forests. Assistance is offered through funding to build capacity such as emerald ash borer management, public outreach, staff training, tree plantings, and other formats supported by the U&CF program. The Wisconsin DNR periodically assesses municipal program capacity through self-reported information. We used data from 2008 and 2018 to rank municipal program capacity using the Community Accomplishment Reporting System (CARS) method. CARS is a ranking system used by the United States Forest Service U&CF Program to rank community capacity. CARS considers whether or not the community has a management plan, the credentials of it’s staff, if it has tree ordinances/policies, and if it has any advocacy/advisory organizations. Each attribute was given one point with ranking score of 0-4 possible. We asked whether or not self-reported scores were different to CARS scores developed by states and reported to the USFS. We also asked if financial assistance had an effect on the CARS score. Finally, we asked if the CARS scores has changed over time.