On Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, Keep Tempe Beautiful hosted the 2022 Tempe Tree-A-Thon where 92 volunteers planted 100 trees at three City of Tempe Parks; Escalante Park, Optimist Park, and Hanger Park.
These trees are more than just beautification. They offer vital shade, positively impact climate, and improve the health of our environment and the people who are in our community.
Tempe has an aggressive goal to reach 25% citywide tree and shade canopy by 2040. The city currently has an 11.4% shade canopy and is working to encourage tree planting throughout the city on both public and private properties. City staff maintains more than 26,000 trees located on city property.
In addition to our volunteers, we are very grateful to the sponsors who made this event possible. Silicon Valley Bank generously provided funding to purchase the trees. The City of Tempe Urban Forest Department provided the expertise, the equipment and all the hard work of digging and prepping the trees for planting. We are also thankful to Kettle Heroes Popcorn and Brick Road Coffee for their in-kind support in keeping our volunteers fed and refreshed!
Our City of Tempe Mayor, Corey Woods vision continues to inspire local action:
“Trees and green space provide important environmental, economic, and social health benefits to the community,” said Tempe Mayor Corey Woods. “Tempe is making huge strides to capture these benefits through the Urban Forest Master Plan and Climate Action Plan, both of which provide a clear path forward to reach the city’s tree canopy goals.”
Keep Tempe Beautiful, a 501(c)3 non-profit, was established in 2021 and is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. Our mission is to inspire and educate the community to take action in making Tempe a clean, green, and beautiful place to live, work and play. Our key areas of focus are to end littering, improve recycling, and improve the beautification of our city. As an all-volunteer organization, your time and dollars are vital to ensuring the success in achieving this mission.
We invite you to join us at the variety of other activities planned each month. Please check our website for volunteer opportunities and sign up for our newsletter to have the information delivered directly to your inbox. If you would like to learn more about how you can help Keep Tempe Beautiful, please contact us at info@keeptempebeutiful.org or call 602.926.0236.