Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

City expects long-term payoff from tree investment

Tree Initiative

Wade Vandervort

A person rides past a recently planted tree at Gary Reese Freedom Park Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Tree Initiative

A recently planted tree grows at Gary Reese Freedom Park Thursday, June 9, 2022. Launch slideshow »

The newly planted trees at Freedom Park in northeast Las Vegas don’t look like much. They stand about 6-7 feet tall and provide little shade or aesthetic appeal.

But they will eventually mature and serve their purpose of helping protect residents from the brutal Southern Nevada heat.

“I think many of the effects are immediate. People see the investment and improvement immediately, but we get greater benefits from the trees as they grow and provide shade and size,” said Bradley Daseler, the city’s urban forester. “Some species tend to grow more quickly than others. (The city) plants a variety of species to capitalize on the trees’ individual strengths and attributes.”

The Las Vegas Tree Initiative intends to plant 60,000 trees in areas of need as part of the city of Las Vegas’ 2050 Master Plan, which has a heavy focus on brining sustainable efforts to the city. Equal numbers of willow acacia, lacebark elm and netleaf hackberry have been planted so far.

One of the first plantings occurred in April at Freedom Park on Washington Avenue and Pecos Road. It was only a handful of trees, but a start in the right direction, officials said.

“Hopefully we accelerate that a bit and get more in over the next few years,” said Marco Velotta, a senior management analyst at the city. “We’ll continue on with that effort and continue to work with urban forestry and those tree plantings to get more parts of the city covered, especially where they’re needed the most.”

UNLV’s Brookings Mountain West and the Lincy Institute found in a 2020 study that Las Vegas “ranked as the most intense urban heat island in the United States in both daytime and nighttime between 2004 and 2013.” The average annual temperature in Las Vegas has also risen each year since 1970, according to the same study.

The urban heat island effect occurs in areas where blacktop and pavement is more abundant, creating “islands” that can produce dangerously high temperatures. These can be exacerbated by the worsening heat waves climate change has caused.

While this heat will undoubtedly affect all residents in Las Vegas, low-income communities and neighborhoods with mostly people of color will face the worst of it, officials said.

American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization, found that these heat islands “disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, low-income communities and people of color.” Intense heat can cause various health issues and even lead to death, especially when someone is exposed to it for an extended period of time.

These trees are the most direct way to mitigate the urban heat island effect, Velotta said. The initiative will bring trees to parks, community centers and other properties managed by the city, which currently has about 45,000 trees.

It’s part of the “Go Green for Good Health” project that is supported by the Mayor’s Fund for Las Vegas LIFE and public donations from companies like the Howard Hughes Corporation.

While more trees usually lead to more water consumption, Velotta stressed they are selective with the types of trees they plant. Shade trees, like eucalyptus and mesquite, have been popular choices for the city to use because they require less water to survive and can provide more coverage.

Although the city paused its tree-planting efforts for the summer, other sustainability initiatives to help decrease energy consumption and water usage are being implemented because “we’re looking at other ways we can reduce building energy consumption,” Velotta said.

One major initiative is a community-based solar project to establish solar-covered parking shades at Freedom Park. The city has entered into a lease with NV Energy to power the panels that will provide low-income residents and those who live in apartment complexes near the park with renewable energy for a reduced rate.