LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Las Vegas is one of the fastest warming cities in the nation, so what can be done to cool the valley down?
One answer: planting trees by the thousands to provide shade and fight what is called the urban heat island. That’s just what’s being done by UNLV students and the greater community.
Last summer was the hottest on record for Southern Nevada with both the highest recorded temperature (120°) and average daily high (107.6°). The Clark County Coroner reported heat was a factor in more than 500 deaths in 2024.
There is now an effort underway to counteract the growing impacts of extreme heat. Dr. Steffen Lehmann, Director of the Urban Futures Lab at UNLV has long been studying the urban heat island, (where urban areas of a metropolitan area are hotter than their neighbors), in the Las Vegas Valley.
“We always say extreme heat is the silent killer. Not only the air pollution, but also heat stroke, dehydration. People, especially the elderly, children, people working outside also homeless people, are clearly suffering,” Dr. Steffen Lehmann asserted.
UNLV is working to reverse the urban heat island by planting 3,000 trees. The UNLV-led Las Vegas Urban Forestry Initiative received a $5 million grant in 2023 to add drought-tolerant trees throughout the community over a five year period.
That’s happening now. Students, university staff, and volunteers are planting the trees in hot spots throughout Clark County: like Jack Dailey Elementary School not far from the university, the neighborhoods surrounding UNLV, East Las Vegas, the Historic Westside, and parts of North Las Vegas, areas where there’s more concrete and asphalt than plants and trees.
The grant allows UNLV to plant on both public and private land in order to provide more shade to neighborhoods most in need and grow the city’s tree canopy.
UNLV is not alone in helping the valley go green to cool down. Clark County is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation to giveaway about 4,500 trees.
Residents who want a free tree are being prioritized based on a map of local heat vulnerability. The city of Las Vegas also has a lofty goal when it comes to greenery: plant 60,000 trees by 2050.
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