Urban Heat Leadership Academy

The Arizona Columbine Garden Club is working with the Urban Heat Leadership Academy Learning Project to help a community within the Metro Phoenix, AZ area plant trees. This large-scale project will incorporate new trees, with a water source, that are adapted to the arid Southwest, to provide shade and help combat extreme heat.  

The Nature Conservancy launched the Urban Heat Leadership Academy targeting neighborhoods in Phoenix that are most affected by heat.  There is a marked difference between shaded and unshaded areas and on some days, certain neighborhoods are as much as 13 degrees hotter than others. These neighborhoods also have the lowest percentage of tree canopy and the highest percentage of child poverty.  By focusing on strategies that have the highest potential for increasing tree canopy cover, the goal is to build cool, healthy, and climate-resilient cities across the Phoenix Metro Area.  The club members will be onsite at the initial tree planting in the designated area of Phoenix and will regularly monitor the trees’ progress.