Phoenix broke several heat records last year. Now Grant Park, which has inequitable tree cover, is seeing a tree planting drive that promises some respite from 100F temperatures
It was a relatively cool spring day in Phoenix, Arizona, as a tree planting crew dug large holes in one of the desert city’s hottest and least shaded neighborhoods.
Still, it was sweaty backbreaking work as they carefully positioned, watered and staked a 10-ft tall Blue palo verde and Chilean mesquite in opposite corners of resident Ana Cordoba’s dusty unshaded backyard.
“If I ever retire, I’d like to be able to spend more time outside. The weather is changing, so I am really happy to get these trees. We need more shade,” said Cordoba, 75, a legal secretary, whose family has lived in Grant Park for more than a century.
Over the course of three days in early April, arborists planted 40 or so desert adapted trees in Grant Park, as part of the city’s equity-driven heat mitigation plan to create a shadier, more livable environment amid rising temperatures and hundreds of heat related deaths.
The trees they are using don’t require too much water and thrive in the dry, arid year round temperature. If anything, this is a good experiment to see how well a space can be greenfield with minimal water use, since the area is going through a minor water crisis in its suburbs. Overall, it’s a good thing to learn from. It sucks to be on the frontline of hard lessons but Phoenix will overcome.
Will it? The Anasazi culture, partially based in Arizona, collapsed when water got too scarce. Trees are not the only thing that need water.