Planting shade trees around your home can save you up to $50 per year on your energy bill, and with the APS Shade Tree program, “shaded walls can be 9° to 36° cooler at peak times,” according to its website.
“In addition to energy savings, shade trees also add value to your property, produce oxygen to help clean the air, capture rainwater, provide a wildlife habitat and reduce storm water runoff.”
The APS Shade Tree Program will supply free shade trees to APS customers who meet the requirements and attend a free shade tree workshop that will cover the planting and care of your shade trees.
The requirements for the APS Shade Tree program:
- Must be a current APS residential customer living in Maricopa County
- Must be able to plant the trees approximately 15 feet away from the western, eastern or southern side of your home
- Must have the legal right to plant the trees on the property
- Must have the ability to care for the tree as needed
- Must attend an APS Shade Tree workshop
Each APS Shade Tree Program workshop is approximately an hour long and curriculum materials will be provided on how to plant and care for your shade tree. Once approved for your trees at the workshop, APS customers must wait to pick up their trees once they have matured.
Two trees will be provided to each APS customer who qualifies for the workshop. Unless the APS customer’s home was built prior to 1980, then the customer qualifies for three trees.
To register for an APS Shade Tree Program Workshop, visit aps.com/trees.
The workshops are running until the end of October. But if you miss out this year, more workshops are planned for 2012. You can send an e-mail to trees@aps.com to receive notification when the next APS Shade Tree program will be held.
