Walking on the street in Arlington in this heat can feel like a treasure hunt for shade, as the spots where trees or buildings tower over the sidewalk are significantly cooler than where the sun beats down directly on the concrete. Last Wednesday, however, sustainability-minded residents and students weren’t searching for shade, but the sunny spots. 

As part of "Climate Change Week," members of Sustainable Arlington, the Tree Committee and New England Climate Summer students rode their bicycles around several streets in East Arlington where they had determined lacked trees by a satellite map, and marked addresses where a tree could have a new home.

The event was one of several in last week’s effort to bring awareness to how climate change impacts Arlington on a local level, and how to remedy those impacts through community participation, Sustainable Arlington co-chairs said.

“Every voice is valuable and necessary to build our community's resilience when facing the challenges brought on by a rising global temperatures,” said Charlotte Milan, Sustainable Arlington co-chair, in an email.

In previous years, the Tree Committee or the Tree Warden has determined where to plant new trees based on resident requests, but this has not necessarily led to the areas most in need receiving the trees. With the help of Adam Kurowski, the town’s global information systems coordinator, they created a map that showed areas lighter on the leafy side.

Tree Committee member Patti Muldoon and New England Climate Summer student Lauren Clapp rode around Harlow, Grafton and Oxford streets, hopping off their bikes when they found a potential spot.

“Wow, this is an eye opener just looking at the state of trees on this street,” Muldoon said at one point, after seeing trees mangled in wires, partially chopped down, or completely dead. “Trees make all the difference [as to] whether this is a livable neighborhood.”

The criteria for determining a good tree location included about 20 feet of space from another tree, an area free of electrical wires above and clear of old tree roots or stumps below. Clapp and Muldoon identified good locations at spots like 63 Harlow St., 73 Everett St. and 19 Grafton St. The group documented the locations and next spring the committee will plant the trees.

There are numerous benefits of planting trees in urban spaces, such as the obvious, more shade, which in turn decreases surfaces temperatures and minimizes the heat island effect, along with stabilizing the ground, absorbing water and carbon dioxide, event leaders said.

This year the committee, which formed last year and includes Board of Selectmen Chair Clarissa Rowe and Tree Warden Jim Dodge, purchased several varieties of trees such as red maples and sugar maples, and hopes to plant about 100 new trees next spring, said Committee Chair Sally Naish.

The Norway maple is currently the most common tree in Arlington and has become an invasive species, so they are now looking to plant more sustainable varieties, she said. 

Part of the inspiration for Climate Change Week was the arrival of four students from the New England Climate Summer. The students are among 27 others who are riding solely on bicycle to 42 communities in New England for climate change activism, organizing and networking.

The week, hosted by Sustainable Arlington and A Better Future Project, also involved a discussion about climate change ideas on Thursday, a bicycle ride to look at the new rain garden set to be planted near Spy Pond, and a home energy improvements by the Arlington Home Energy Efficiency Team.

Clapp, who is a junior at Elon University in North Carolina, said Arlington has been one of the more progressive communities with climate change initiatives that they have encountered. She said learning how to look for tree locations would help them when they go to Roslindale and work on a similar project.

“This is something that I never really thought about as important to stopping climate change, but it makes so much sense,” Clapp said, taking a break in the shade from searching for tree locations. “If you just [plant] a tree, it lowers the temperature of the gravel and asphalt that’s nearby and helps lower CO2 . . . and it just makes the neighborhood more like a home.”