Columbia Green is beating the heat and you can too. No, really — one of their programs is aptly titled “Beat the Heat,” and centers around providing community members with free trees so that they can help create shade and urban tree canopy.
“Columbia Green has been planting trees since we started in the 1980s, but this program has really allowed us to specifically target areas that need them,” said Susan Carson Lambert, Co-Chair of Fundraising and Education & Outreach for Columbia Green.
Lambert’s background in geography was what initially got her involved with the organization, and her mapping skills continue to come into play. Part of the Beat the Heat efforts involved studying surface temperature maps, and when doing so, Lambert and the Columbia Green team noticed unshaded areas of the city can be nearly 20 degrees hotter than shaded areas…