[hauntedheadnc]

“We Need Shade”: America’s Hottest City Rushes to Plant More Trees -- Only about 9 percent of Phoenix has canopy coverage—poor neighborhoods have less.

...Trees have multiple benefits in urban areas which include cleaner air, improved physical and mental health, water conservation, increasing wildlife habitat, CO2 storage and sequestration and lower temperatures through shade.

The city is mostly concerned with reducing the urban heat island effect and improving public health, and its 2010 shade masterplan set out a goal of achieving 25 percent citywide canopy cover by 2030. Amid little progress and rising heat mortality and morbidity, in 2021 Phoenix established the country’s first office of heat response and mitigation. Its community tree planting program is now being rolled out to public schools, churches and homes in qualifying census tracts—low-income neighborhoods with little shade.

Residents can choose from a list of 19 native and desert-adapted trees including the Texas olive, Chinese red pistache and Chilean mesquites. The trees, which are a couple of years old and pretty heavy, are planted by contracted arborists. For insurance reasons, they must be within the property—not the sidewalk—and not too close to walls or power lines. Each household also gets a tree kit—a 100 foot hose, irrigation timer, and instrument to measure the soil pH and moisture, as well as written care instructions.