Weather It Matters: Fighting South Bend's 'urban heat island' with new tree 'cooling corridor'

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Some say the best defense is a good offense.

In the fight against South Bend’s "urban heat island," the best defense is a tree fence. 

But volunteers aren't just putting a new sycamore in any old spot in the city.

To find out how we got here, we should go back to the roots of the project.

During the summer of 2025, city garbage trucks doubled as data collectors, using specialized thermometers to track hot spots around south bend.

Researchers at Notre Dame helped translate that temperature data into a "heat map." The detailed rendering highlighted individual blocks and neighborhoods where trees and other heat interventions are most needed. 

It’s a new level of detail that South Bend Director of Civic Innovation Patrick McGuire says is a gamechanger.

"The environmental factors and variables that residents are experiencing really vary from place to place, and street from street to street," McGuire explained. "With as granular of a view as possible, we want to know, where do we need to target interventions and better serve residents?"

Throughout the past year, volunteers have been hard at work, planting dozens of trees at local elementary schools. 

"Schools tend to have lower tree canopy on average than other spaces," Project Manager Barbara Dale explained. "They can be on the same level as prisons."

Students got in on the action at Harrison Elementary last fall, with 50 new trees going in the ground.

Navarre Middle School also saw 50 new trees planted, with Washington High School next up for a forest infusion this coming fall. 

But it’s not just about supplying shade at local schools, it’s also about taking places with plenty of pre-existing trees and connecting the tree canopy.

"You're looking at site by site, but also, how does this connect with other places, so that we can have kind of a cooling corridor. That proximity is really important," Dale said.

This cooling canopy won’t happen right away, but it’s a start, helping to shade South Bend for centuries to come.

If you want to get involved in the city’s urban canopy tree program, you can sign up for a free tree to be planted on your tree lawn.