Students at the Children’s Garden Montessori in Richland are helping the environment one tree at a time.

“We’re going to remove the urban heat,” Nirbhuy, a first-grader at Children’s Garden Montessori said.

Nirbhuy and Alexis, a second-grader, spearheaded the tree-planting project with the help of their teachers and the City of Richland. They said they want to reduce urban heat by planting more trees in the city.

“We want to cool the place down and have other people get peace around trees, so that’s why we’re planting trees,” Alexis said.

Nirbhuy’s mother, Sai Ramanathan, said the kids raised over $500 to purchase some new trees for their school.

“Climate change is a huge thing that’s affecting everyone on the Earth and every part, so knowing about the value of trees and collecting data about it is making them responsible, so they grow as responsible citizens and give back to the community,” Ramanathan said.

With the help of Richland Energy Services, the kids planted two trees outside their school on Tuesday.

Ramanathan said the students collected data throughout the summer and will eventually present their project to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.