Watershed has partnered with Arizona State University, the City of Phoenix, and EcoRISE on Canopy for Kids, an ambitious effort to plant 1,000 shade trees at Phoenix schools over four years. The project aims to create cooler neighborhoods, capture rainwater, improve air quality, and empower urban youth to shape the desert spaces where they live, learn, and play.
Working alongside students, teachers, and families, Watershed staff are facilitating hands-on design workshops where young people imagine the outdoor spaces they want for their schools. Together, they explore how landscapes can be designed to thrive in the Sonoran Desert and help cool their communities. Their ideas turn into the roadmap for transforming their playgrounds into living schoolyards, helping students to transform the way they view the environment they call home in the process.
First year Canopy for Kids participants tell us that they now see the rain differently. Instead of something that interrupts recess or disappears down the street, they see it as one of the Sonoran Desert’s most valuable resources, one that nourishes our trees, gardens, and entire communities. Their excitement is palpable: one participating school reported 100% attendance for the class responsible for planting!
Programs like Canopy for Kids are the embodiment of our strategy to cool our urban areas while inspiring future generations to be good stewards of the environment. Together, we’re building cooler schoolyards, driving equity through greener neighborhoods, and co-creating a future where every person is empowered to understand that one watershed means all of us working together for a hydro-local future.
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