Students have done community service with the tree-planting organization Canopy for many years.

Now, four Eastside students have joined with two students from another high school to create a newspaper for Canopy’s Green Gap project.

The Green Gap project is dedicated to sharing the history of East Palo Alto land, land use and trees from pre-settlement to now, including comparing the current status of trees in East Palo Alto and Palo Alto.

“The Eastside Panther inspired us to create our own newspaper to spread the history,” said sophomore Jose Yopihua.

Freshman Edgar Bustos, a reporter on The Eastside Panther, is taking a lead role in the project by teaching his teammates a few journalistic skills. The group is learning how to interview, to collect EPA community members’ memories and experiences.

Freshman Falekihefehi “Fehi” Piutau hopes to educate people on the differences between higher income and lower income communities in areas other than finance. She believes educating the community is key to creating an impact.

Canopy advocates planting more trees to provide green spaces and parks to promote more physical activity to reduce stress and attract new residents. Tree coverage overall improves air quality and water quality.

“Tree coverage has a lot more benefits than aesthetics that people need to know about,” Fehi said. “I’m most excited about learning just as much as I am teaching.”

The newspaper team hopes to publish its articles through Canopy in May.