Trees Matter!
Last week we introduced our involvement with the Trees Matter organization, and how we are partnering with them to utilize carbon offsets and provide a carbon-neutral coffee subscription service. This week, we want to dive even deeper with you all into who Trees Matter is as an organization. To do this, we decided to interview Aimee Esposito, the Executive Director of Trees Matter. We hope that through this, you learn more about Trees Matter, and about the importance of trees in our environment! Enjoy!
Us: Would you be able to summarize Trees Matter and why you’re so passionate about it?
Aimee: Trees Matter is a Small 501C3 Environmental nonprofit located here in the valley in the greater Phoenix area, and our mission is ‘to inspire and promote an increased tree canopy across the valley.’ We do that in three main ways currently. We distribute trees, we plant trees, and then we provide education. A lot of that education is focused on the advocacy and equity issues, as well as just basic information on planting, and of course maintenance. We have a really great resource called “Ask an Arborist” on our Facebook page, so you know, we don’t want to just talk about planting the tree but also the long term importance of taking care of the trees and that stewardship.
So personally for me, I’m born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I am aware that a lot of us come from other places that live here, and that’s really cool, and I think that trees can be a grounding place literally, and figuratively for people to come together and really get that sense of place and culture while making the environment better. And with the Urban Heat Island and climate change, we can have so many benefits that come from trees, both culturally and environmentally and health-wise as well.
Us: How many trees does Trees Matter plant during a single year?
Aimee: That’s a good question. We distribute through the utility company SRP typically between 5,000 to 5,500 trees… Then with schools, we reach thousands of kids, and we plant usually at six schools. It really depends on the year and what the schools need but it’s not as big as I’d like it to be. Still, it’s like 40 trees.”
Us: Can you elaborate on the socio-economic importance trees have, especially in Phoenix? How does Trees Matter address that issue?
Aimee: So we’ve been having a lot of conversations especially with the issue of equity becoming more important with the Black Lives Matter movement and with other issues of equity popping up, especially regionally here, within our community, within the Latinx community. One thing that we internally have had conversations about that we want to start having externally more is the conversation of trees being a wealth indicator and how we can change that. People that don’t have trees tend to be the people that need trees the most… You can have an area and just literally, from a satellite view, be able to see where the income brackets are.
Trees are something that in the past have been considered beautification, and recently, in the last decade, people are seeing the other side of it, the environmental benefits. Carbon reduction and shade are a huge thing here. When I talk to most folks that’s the first thing they think of, the shade factor. One thing we are realizing is that as more and more studies are coming out, we’re getting so many amazing researchers… that are discussing the benefits of trees, both from a mental health and a physical health perspective. The way the city prioritizes in the past, its way of designing cities with systematic redlining, we have left a lot of people out of being able to access those trees. When you live somewhere where you can go outside easily and walk around trees, you’re able to walk more, you’re able to breathe better, and you’re able to have the mental health benefits of being around those trees. And the people who live in these areas, have for generations not been given that ability.
We really prioritize those areas as best we can, specifically, through our Trees for Schools program. We have a map that the Maricopa County Public Health Department put together that has cardiovascular disease, heat-related illness and death, and income, all overlaid to show us where those hotspots are. When schools apply, or when we reach out to schools, we choose the schools that are in those areas which need trees the most.”
Us: Can you describe the heat island effect for us too?
Aimee: What the Urban Heat Island does is when we build with materials that absorb heat, like concrete, asphalt, metals, the things that we tend to have as part of our urban experience, those things hold onto the heat all day and then they release it at night… It tends to be hotter at night than if you were to… go back in time even to twenty years ago, and we weren’t as urbanized. And you can feel the difference… People need time to cool off… and that typically happens at night. We don’t get that benefit. Something that I’m hoping we see in the future is our engineers or landscapers breaking from that silo effect, and the policymakers and officials being more collaborative and seeing how we can make more room for trees and also look at how do we create infrastructure that doesn’t absorb so much heat.
Us: Do you mind talking about the water usage of trees and their benefits?
Aimee: They do take water, but it’s that the benefits they provide are great. One thing plants do and that trees do well… is sweat out water through a process called evapotranspiration. When you’re walking outside and the water comes out, you’re feeling that cooling effect, not just the shade, but droplets, like how an evaporated cooler would work. They create this cooling effect, that helps combat the urban heat island effect that we were talking about before… And trees are like umbrellas too, that’s another benefit. People think of grass and that’s cooling, but when you think about having a tree that creates shade and then puts out cooling it has a greater value than just putting a lot of water into grass. Even if the grass creates some cooling effect, a tree is more likely to create even more because of the shape, and takes less water to do so.
Us: Imagine someone says, ‘I really want to plant a tree, but I don’t know anything about trees.’ Tell us some of the master tips.
Aimee: So the first thing is thinking about a tree like a long-term pet. That tree is going to be needing to have care and be loved for a long time. Also, think about what the watering schedule is going to be needed for that tree. Are you going to have the time to hand water or do you need to install something to put in for watering?
When you’re thinking about the location, you also want to think about what’s below. We have a really cool system, a free program that is federally funded called Arizona 811 (found http://www.arizona811.com/). They come over and they mark your utilities for you. And then you want to look up… is it going to hit a line? A lot of people make the mistake of planting a really tall tree under something that it’s going to hit or next to their house where you’re going to have to constantly be cutting it back so that it doesn’t fall on your roof. So just looking around and visualizing what that tree will be.
And then looking at ‘for me, what is the value that I want to come out of that tree?’ Are you wanting something low maintenance that you can plant and you just have to water every once in a while and that it's there? Are you looking for shade and cooling? Or are you looking for food?”
Us: So, what is your favorite type of tree, if Trees Matter could only plant one variety?
Aimee: Oh man, well that would be bad, we want tree diversity. But, I always say the mesquite tree. I think it's just it's the tree that I feel like most people really identify with when they think of the desert and the Sonoran desert. It's what we call a nursery tree, so it takes care of other plants and animals around it.”
Us: What are good ways that people can get involved with Trees Matter, separate from our cold brew service?
Aimee: We have volunteer opportunities that show up. Obviously, right now its a bit weird with everything going on with the pandemic, but even so, you can go to our website at https://treesmatter.org and you can sign up to subscribe to our newsletter. That’s the best way to see what volunteer opportunities are coming, and we’re really great about sharing information about what’s going on with Trees Matter, and what we’re doing. We’re also pretty active on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter as well. All of those, the handles are TreesMatterAZ.”
