HONOLULU (KHON2) — A new website helps Hawaii residents find the best tree for their yard.

The goal is to encourage more people to plant trees on private property.

Some of the many benefits of trees include providing oxygen and keeping the islands cool.

“If we want to maintain our outdoor lifestyle, and not have to hide inside in the AC, trees are going to be a big part of that and it takes time for them to grow, so we want to plant them now,” said Lisa Marten, executive director of Healthy Climate Communities.

Planting trees is crucial. In general, more trees come down as more buildings go up.

“We need to start to treat trees, in particular, large trees, as infrastructure,” said Roxanne Adams, the University of Hawaii at Manoa Director of Buildings and Grounds.

The City passed a resolution in 2018 to increase Honolulu’s urban tree canopy from 22% to 35% by 2035.

But how does one know what type of tree they should plant? A new website can help.

“It’s specific to Hawaii, so it’s trees that grow well here and they can put in what they like in a tree,” Marten explained about how the website works.

Lulu Millan said she believes using righttreehawaii.com helps people avoid picking the wrong tree that could end up dying.

“I just go and look at plants and see which ones I think [will work], I hope it will work, and then I bring them here and they turn out to be full sun, so it worked out great,” Millan said.

Millan said she ended up picking a lychee tree, which the website recommended for her area.

“Seeing how many trees have been coming down over the years is really really sad. In general, we need them for everything,” she said.