SRP offering 2 free shade trees for qualifying Valley residents

PHOENIX — Some Valley residents will soon get the chance to receive two free tree saplings to plant for shade as officials work on ways to ward off heat, increase energy savings and improve air quality.

The upcoming Shade Tree workshops, presented by Salt River Project, are intended to help cool off housing costs, while not using a lot of water, by offering a variety of trees well-suited for the desert: palo verde, native mesquite, lilac chaste, thornless mesquite, desert willow and the willow acacia.

Here’s who qualifies to participate in SRP’s tree shade program

Those interested must be residents with utility service provider SRP, who are willing to attend an online tree shade workshop.

Participants must be able to care for the tree as needed, have never received trees from the program before and have the legal right to plant trees where they live.

Additionally, they will also have to abide by rules of planting trees about 15-20 feet from the exposes exterior walls and on the south, west or east side of the property.

What does registration for the Mesa shade trees program look like?

To take part, individuals are required to register online for a 75-minute workshop on Zoom, with three available time slots: Jan. 25 (Thursday) from noon to 1:15 p.m., and Feb. 10 and Feb. 24 (both Saturdays) from 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

Once the participant has been verified as an SRP customer, they will receive an approval email from rsvpBOOK. Individuals are encouraged to check their junk and spam folders if they do not see the approval email.

The workshop will provide information regarding how to select, plant and care for the trees.

After the participants have completed the workshop, they will be allowed to pick up their 2- to 6-foot saplings.

Once the saplings are picked up, a request to Arizona 811 will need to be made so that professional locators can scan the area for any potential underground lines in conflict.

As soon as the participant’s property has been approved, they can begin digging.

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