Growing unnoticed: reframing school trees as living educational infrastructure

Urban forests are increasingly recognized as an important component of climate adaptation strategies, yet one critical element remains unseen: school trees. Across cities and countries, schools, where children spend more than half their day, are often covered by impervious surfaces and have little canopy cover. These conditions may increase heat exposure, reduce the ecosystem services provided by often few existing trees, and most importantly, decrease children’s daily contact with nature. In this perspective, we synthesize interdisciplinary literature on the benefits of trees in school environments and argue that neglecting school trees in urban planning, monitoring systems, and educational policy represents an important gap at the intersection of climate adaptation, public health, environmental justice, and education. We propose the concept of Living Educational Infrastructure (LEI) to refer to school trees that simultaneously deliver environmental services, access to nature, and function as active resources for learning and literacy. We present examples of schools across different geographic contexts to illustrate that school trees are often absent from municipal urban forest inventories and thus remain invisible, underutilized learning resources. To overcome this institutional invisibility and leverage their management and potential impact, we suggest reclassifying school trees as essential infrastructure, supported by three concrete actions: systematic mapping and monitoring, integration into school practices, and clear governance. Applying the proposed LEI framework may contribute to more equitable and climate-resilient cities, particularly given that children account for more than 25% of the global urban population. Without specific recognition of school trees, a vital part of our urban forests, and most importantly, a core element of children’s daily environment, remains unseen.