Local students joined a nonprofit organization Thursday to restore trees at a Grand Concourse park as part of an environmental effort.

Four different Catholic high schools with 46 students partnered with the Bronx is Blooming for the project at Joyce Kilmer Park.

John Vallachi, environmental program manager of Bronx is Blooming, says increasing temperatures are problematic in a place like the concrete jungle.

"We're seeing record tempertures year after year. That's a public health crisis," Vallachi said. "In cities, we have this thing call the urban heat island effect, so where there's a lot of blacktop and asphault, there's a lot of absporption to the heat."

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says annual statewide temperatures have warmed three degrees since 1970. In the city, 350 New Yorkers die every summer due to the heat.

"We're trying to bring awareness to the ecosystem here, to the trees, we're just trying to help out preserve as much as we can of the trees we have right now to keep a safer world," said participant Fernado Molina, of All Hallows High School.

"Bronx is Blooming has really taken this park under their wing and were hoping to be a part of their ongoing process of keeping the park happy and healthy," said Paul Fontana, director of arts and advocacy at All Hallows High School.