In neighborhoods where there is more concrete and asphalt, record-breaking heat is reflected, trapped, and absorbed during the day and radiated and released at night, offering residents no reprieve. And yet a well-treed neighborhood–even just a few blocks away can feel 20 degrees cooler or more in the shade.

Urban nature works as a natural cooling system and is a crucial public health strategy to protect people from extreme heat and enhance well-being. By planting the right trees in the right places and expanding shade where people need it most, we can cool people’s everyday experiences walking to school or taking the bus or getting groceries, while improving air quality and boosting overall health for our communities.

In our hottest neighborhoods, well-placed tree canopy can be a life-saving measure. Residents in Phoenix have named 2500+ sites where they need protection from heat. Designing, growing, implementing, and sustaining tree and shade canopy at this scale requires expanding a well-trained cohort of workers committed to bringing and maintaining a resilient, low-water, biodiverse urban forest strategically placed in our hottest neighborhoods. Through neighborhood workshops, paid learning opportunities, paid internships, entrepreneurship courses and mentoring with business and urban nature experts, ASU’s Urban Nature initiative engages residents of communities in planning and expanding a resilient urban tree canopy while opening pathways to start, sustain and grow a thriving urban nature career or business.