Chandler Is Giving Residents a Free Native Tree on Nov. 7, Because Fall, Not April, Is Arbor Day in the Desert

Most of the country plants trees for Arbor Day in April. Chandler waits until November, and the reason is the weather. On Saturday, Nov. 7, the city will hold its Celebration of Arbor Day at Folley Memorial Park, where Chandler residents can pick up a free native tree in a 5-gallon container, get planting advice, and spend a morning learning about the trees that shade their streets.

“Typically, Arbor Day is held in April alongside Earth Day,” the city’s event listing explains. “However, fall is a better time to plant and prune trees in our southwest desert climate.”

The event runs from 9 to 11 a.m. at Folley Memorial Park, 601 E. Frye Road, and it is free. The trees are limited, though. The city says they go out first come, first served while supplies last, one per Chandler household, and residents must bring proof that they live in Chandler. Anyone who wants a tree should plan to arrive early rather than late.

What happens at the park

The city describes the morning as a chance to “explore the great outdoors through the wonder of trees,” with tree facts and family activities alongside the giveaway. A detailed schedule had not been posted when we checked the listing this week, so the specific activities are still to be announced.

The Chandler Public Library will be there too. Its mobile branch, the Chandler Discovery Library, lists the Arbor Day event at Folley Park on its November schedule, from 9 a.m. to noon, which runs an hour past the end time on the city’s event page. The Discovery Library is a library on wheels. According to the library, it carries books, free Wi-Fi, printing, Culture Passes and a small seed library, and it has a wheelchair lift and iPads for public use. The library says the vehicle was funded through the city’s 2024/2025 budget process, with a contribution from the Friends of Chandler Public Library.

The park itself has a story. Folley Memorial Park is named for Zora Folley, a Chandler resident who fought Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title in 1967 and later served on the Chandler City Council. The 24-acre park has ball fields, basketball courts, a pool and aquatic center, a shaded play area and seven reservable pavilions. The city’s park page notes that the park restrooms are currently closed, which is worth knowing if you are bringing children.

A city that counts its trees

The giveaway is run through Chandler’s Urban Forestry program, which plans the planting, care, trimming and removal of trees on city property, including parks, green spaces and rights-of-way. Its stated mission is short: “We inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.”

The city has also worked to learn exactly what it has. With help from a $40,000 Community Challenge Grant from the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Chandler set out to complete its first tree inventory and an urban forest management plan. Crews identified each tree in city parks and facilities by species, measured its size and height, and rated its health. The city’s page says the project began in January 2024 and was completed in April.

The results, which the city has posted, give a picture of a young urban forest. More than 15,000 of the trees counted had trunks between 1 and 6 inches across at chest height, and only 190 measured more than 31 inches. By height, about 14,600 were 15 feet or shorter, while 240 topped 60 feet. On condition, the inventory rated 16,757 trees good, 8,127 fair, 722 poor and 97 dead, which the city says puts more than 95 percent in an acceptable range.

Those numbers help explain why the city keeps handing out trees: small trees take years to become the kind of canopy that cools a sidewalk in July. Chandler has been named a Tree City USA community by the Arbor Day Foundation every year since 2011 and received the foundation’s Tree City USA Growth Award for work completed in 2022, an award the city says recognizes higher levels of tree care and community engagement.

The event listing makes the case for street trees with one example. It says a single mature Indian rosewood will provide more than $2,000 in environmental benefits over the next 20 years. The city’s urban forestry page lists the benefits it has in mind: cooler air, filtered pollutants, better water quality, more urban wildlife, higher property values, and improved physical and mental health.

Why November is the right month

The timing at Folley Park follows the city’s own planting advice. In its guidelines for planting trees in the desert, Chandler says year-round planting is possible here, but the ideal window runs from September to November. Planting in fall gives roots the cooler months to spread and settle before summer heat arrives.

The same guidelines walk through planting a container tree step by step. Loosen the soil over an area four to five times as wide as the root ball, but no deeper than the root ball itself. Then dig the center hole twice as wide as the root ball and only as deep, so the tree does not sink and bury its trunk. Slide the tree out of its container and handle it by the root ball rather than the trunk. The top of the root ball should sit level with or slightly above the surrounding soil.

Backfill with the native soil you dug out. The city says no amendments or fertilizer are necessary. Water the area thoroughly, then spread 2 to 4 inches of organic mulch over the soil, keeping it away from the trunk, to slow evaporation and keep the ground cooler. If the young tree cannot stand on its own, set two stakes outside the root ball and tie the trunk loosely enough that it can move a little. And resist the urge to strip the lower trunk. The city advises leaving small branches on for the first year because they shade and feed the tree.

Getting it through the first year

Watering is where most new trees succeed or fail. A University of Arizona Cooperative Extension guide to watering trees and shrubs opens with a blunt observation: “Most people over water plants.” The guide says the most active roots are at the drip line, the area under the outer edge of the canopy, and beyond it, not right against the trunk. That is where water should go, and as a tree grows, drip emitters should be moved outward with it.

The extension recommends watering deeply and less often. Trees typically root 18 to 36 inches deep, and each watering should reach that depth but not go past it. To check, the guide suggests pushing a smooth rod a quarter to three-eighths of an inch thick into the ground soon after watering. It slides easily through wet soil and gets hard to push when it reaches dry soil. A good rule of thumb, according to the guide, is to water again when that probe will not go in more than 3 to 4 inches.

Young plants need water more often than established ones, the guide says, and once they settle in after a year or two, a slight dry spell between waterings helps them become more drought tolerant. Plants also use three to five times as much water in hot, dry, windy seasons as they do in winter, so a schedule that works in November will need to change by May. The extension also lists the warning signs. Dry soil and older leaves that yellow, brown or drop point to too little water. Soil that stays damp, with algae or mushrooms growing, and young leaves turning pale or yellow point to too much.

If you are not in Chandler

The free trees are for Chandler households only, but the planting advice applies across the East Valley. Mesa is running its own tree season, with shade tree workshops and giveaways for Mesa residents. San Tan Valley and Queen Creek gardeners who miss out can still use November the same way Chandler is, by getting a desert-adapted tree in the ground while the weather is on their side.

For Chandler residents, the plan is simple. Bring proof of residency to Folley Memorial Park on the morning of Nov. 7, pick out a tree before they run out, browse the Discovery Library while you are there, and go home with a shovel job for the afternoon. Questions about the event can go to the city at 480-782-2748.