RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Armed with an app, a hammer and a tape measure, students at Riverside City College spent Thursday afternoon measuring trees across campus. The RCC Urban Forest Inventory project is part of a micro grant the college received from the California Clean Air Coalition. The goal is to identify, measure and tag as many campus trees as possible.

According to the National Park Service, urban forests improve air quality, lower the temperature, reduce energy consumption in buildings and remove tons of pollutants from the air every year.

By cataloging the number of trees and their condition, the Student Sustainability Collective will establish a baseline that will make it easier for ground crews to care for this vital resource. The study also ties in nicely with the district’s outline for a sustainability and climate action plan, the focus for October being decarbonization.