The APS shade tree program gives away free Mesquites, Palo Verdes & Desert Willows

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APS has a wonderful program where you can get 2 (or 3, depending on your homes age) shade trees, for free! All you have to do is attend a short lecture on tree care and then they give you the trees. Fin out more about it here:

http://www.aps.com/main/green/choice/choice_126.html

While this is a great program, it doesn't go far enough. The City needs to take a leadership role in expanding it, via the following steps.

1. Encourage SRP to have a matching program, so everyone in the Valley can have access to this resource.

2. Expand the program to include multi family properties. Not everyone lives in a single family home after all. Obviously, multi family properties are larger, so 2 or 3 trees wouldn't do the trick. Some kind of ratio could be worked out, for every X number of units, you get Y number of trees.

3. Expand the program to non profits like churches and schools. Think about how much open land many churches & schools have around town. Our churches and schools play yards and fields should be shady oasis, sadly most of the time, that isn't the case. Work out a ratio where for every X acres the non profit owns they can get Y trees.