A girl in a green shirt and a girl in a white shirt are holding yellow shovels. They are scooping dirt into a hole where a man in a blue shirt is holding onto a tree they are planting. In the background, there is a school building.

To help cool the Tri-Cities, kids plant hundreds of trees for cooler parks, playgrounds

By Courtney Flatt October 2, 2024

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The sun beat down on Tapteal Elementary School’s playground in West Richland. The asphalt was warm, and so was the play equipment. But a local student club had plans to help create shade in a grassy field nearby.

“Today, we’re here planting six maple trees and one urbanite ash tree around Tapteal’s playground,” said Alexis Nicholson, a fifth grade student and a co-founder of the club Kids for Urban Trees.

The kids said they all love maple trees.

“I like the maple trees a lot because, one, I think they’re pretty; two, I feel they give a lot of shade; and three, they have helicopters (for kids to play with),” Alexis said, referring to the winged seeds that fall from the trees.

Four kids in white T-shirts that say "where kids create a greener, cooler tomorrow" on the back walk around a playground. The ground is mostly cement. There is some grass in the far right and back of the photo. Two of the kids are walking around an orange street cone.

Students with the Kids for Urban Trees club walk around the playground at Tapteal Elementary School in West Richland. The playground doesn’t have much shade. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB)

When the group first started planting trees, they learned about something called the urban heat island effect.

“During the day all the black surfaces get heat, and then at night they release them again. So it just gets hotter and hotter,” said Bailey Getz, a fifth grader.

That could be a big problem, said club co-founder and fourth grader Nirbhuy Arun. That’s why they’re trying to help.

“What happens now is there’s heat all the time. Trees help to mitigate these urban heat islands,” Nirbhuy said.

Those heat islands will get warmer as the climate continues to change. That’s another reason the kids say they wanted to help now. Scientists say less nighttime cooling could be particularly dangerous on very hot days.

A child in a white T-shirt and a man in a blue shirt and jeans hold onto the trunk of a small tree. They are placing the tree in a hole. A group of other students and parents look on in the right side of the picture. They are standing on green grass. The sky is blue with a few wispy clouds.

Nirbhuy Arun helps place a tree in a hole. Next, students at Tapteal Elementary School will help pack dirt in the hole. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB)

After first planting trees at Arbor Day events, Nirbhuy and Alexis planted trees at parks, more schools and low-income housing complexes. They’ve now planted more than 300 trees across the Tri-Cities.

They worked with the Mid-Columbia Community Forestry Council, serving as the nonprofit’s youth branch. Nirbhuy and Alexis wrote grants to get sponsors and funding. Recently, they received a grant from the Benton-Franklin Health District to plant more trees around playgrounds.

This fall, they won the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The national prize honors young leaders who hope to make a difference to people and the environment, awarding $10,000 to continue their service or for higher education.

“We were like, ‘What? We won it?’ And we were so happy,” Alexis said.

An adult hand is helping a child put on lady bug gardening gloves.

Kids for Urban Trees received grants to help plant trees and to give other students gardening gloves to keep. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB)

Now, the Kids for Urban Trees club has more than doubled, growing from two to five members. They’re spreading their knowledge like appleseeds across the region, teaching other kids how to plant trees.

“In this way we can plant trees more effectively and spread our knowledge better and faster to the community,” Nirbhuy said.

That includes tips like calling 8-1-1 to check for gas lines in places where you plan to dig, how to pick out the correct tree for your area and how to care for your tree.

On a recent afternoon, 10 students at Tapteal Elementary helped plant trees — and learned from these tree ambassadors. To get things started, the club members asked the Tapteal students what their favorite things are about trees.

Kids in white t-shirts are pushing and pulling a black wagon. One kid is sitting in the wagon, along with a clear plastic tote box. In the background, there is a tree laying on its side. The kids are standing on green grass. The back of the picture is a parking lot and a school building. The sky is blue with wispy clouds.

Students with the Kids for Urban Trees club get ready to plant trees at Tapteal Elementary School in West Richland. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB)

The students said they loved reading under trees, the shade from them, that it feels good to help nature and that they liked digging.

That’s what the students did next.

City grounds crews helped dig the initial holes for the trees. The kids picked out their own small gardening gloves to keep and helped fill in the holes. Then, they added fertilizer.

Tapteal students can earn “good Hawks” tickets from their teachers. The school auctioned off tree planting spots with the tickets, said Jaxi Mango, a third grader at Tapteal.

A boy in a white shirt, a girl in a green shirt and another girl in a purple shirt are digging dirt to put in a whole where they've planted a tree. They are all holding shovels with wooden handles. The tree is a little taller than them with green leaves. A man in a neon orange worker's shirt looks on. A school is in the background.

Quentin Cameron, Jaxi Mango and Taylee Kraft plant their tree, which they named Mango Rose Mac and Cheese. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB)

“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, my grandma owns a garden, so this should be (fun)’,” Jaxi said, while scooping dirt into a hole. “She has a bunch of trees in her backyard that she planted.”

Jaxi and a fellow third grader, Taylee Kraft, named their tree Mango Rose Mac and Cheese.

That’s in honor of their last names.

“Plus we chose Rose because that’s my middle name, and it’s literally a plant. And this is a plant,” Taylee said.

Other tree names included Jamal’s Plumb Bacon and names that honored the beloved, longtime building foreman, who is retiring this year: Hank Rodriguez.

The trees planted today are about five years old. The hope is these students can watch their trees grow for years to come.