SRP partners with City of Phoenix to better the environment

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Local officials and community organizations are combining efforts to better the environment of the Phoenix community.

"It's planting the right tree in the right place," Michael Nowakowski said. "A lot of times when you're driving down the street, you go, 'I wonder why the tree is right under that powerline.'" It's because we planted the wrong tree in the wrong place."

Four hundred trees were removed and replacing those were 1,200 trees that were replanted within Valley parks, schools, and other public areas.

"SRP must remove or trim thousands of trees every year under our powerlines, so what we decided to do this year was to remove those trees, but then replace them with three times as many within the right location," Kelly Barr said.

SRP says that replanting the trees in the right places will help to prevent trees that grow near powerlines create liability, and even fire hazards for citizens.

"We replanted trees in place, same place, smaller trees, utility line friendly spaces," Lori Jones said.

But aside from preventing powerline hazards, the "Right Tree-Right Place" program was also organized to help restore the environment and prevent "waste heat" caused by our use of energy.

"It will also shade the regional shade tree canopy and reduce the urban heat island impact, and we're really excited about that," Barr said. "It's also going to save our customers money because we're going to save money in vegetation management costs."

SRP and the City of Phoenix say this project should benefit the Phoenix community by planting the right trees in the right places.