Phoenix planted thousands of trees in the last year as part of plan to increase shade

Phoenix’s five-year plan to add thousands of trees and hundreds of new shade structures across the city is on track to meet its goals. Phoenix’s Office of Heat Response and Mitigation on Wednesday delivered its first progress report on the city’s 2024 Shade Phoenix action plan.

Phoenix City Council last year approved the ambitious plan to increase shade citywide. The plan allocated $60 million in federal and city funds over five years to pay for 27,000 trees and more than 500 shade structures at schools, parks, bus stops and private properties with the goal of protecting residents from Phoenix’s extreme temperatures.

One year in, $16 million has been spent on shade projects, Office of Heat Response and Mitigation Director David Hondula said during a Wednesday meeting of Phoenix City Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, and Planning Subcommittee.

Hondula said in the first year since adopting the plan, Phoenix planted 7,216 trees. That included 1,238 trees planted on 56 school campuses and 1,984 trees planted at more than 1,000 private residences in low-income neighborhoods.

Even with other trees around the city lost to storms, or removed for other reasons, Hondula said Phoenix gained more than 5,500 trees in the past year.

“That’s the largest number that we have on record as a Heat Office,” Hondula said.

The city also installed 155 shade structures in the past year, Hondula said. Twenty-six school campuses got new shade structures and the city displayed temporary art installations for shade at nine parks throughout the spring and summer.

The city also installed new shade covers at 81 bus stops. About 78% of the city’s bus stops now have shade.

“Public Transit reports — and I find this so impressive — that we continue to be on track to have shade at every bus stop in the city where it’s feasible to do so by 2030,” Hondula said.

In all, Hondula said the city has met 31 out of 36 year-one benchmarks laid out in the 2024 plan. The other five goals are in progress, he said.

Hondula said a planned inventory and health assessment of city-owned trees is slightly behind schedule. He said a top priority in the coming year will be to complete that and use the data from the inventory to develop a new citywide tree maintenance protocol.

“We need to ensure that our management and maintenance practices are optimized to ensure we get a good return on our investment,” Hondula said.

The annual progress report Hondula delivered Wednesday was a requirement of the 2024 plan to ensure goals stayed on track.

Phoenix has fallen short on similar goals in the past. The city in 2010 created a plan to plant more trees for shade. But the 2024 Shade Phoenix plan acknowledged only about 70% of actions from the 2010 shade plan had been achieved or were in progress 14 years later.