Who Speaks for the Trees in LV?

Las Vegas is the fastest-warming city in the U.S. — and that's only made worse by the urban heat island effect, caused by dense concentrations of heat-trapping concrete, asphalt, glass, and steel. (Read more about Southern Nevada's extreme heat vulnerability on this site from RTC: Southern Nevada Strong.) The effect isn't evenly distributed: Our neighbors in the center and Eastside of the city see even higher temperatures from older infrastructure and more blacktop.

This April, the City of Las Vegas announced a plan to plant 60,000 trees by 2025 to combat the city's extreme heat. In today's episode, the state’s only female Master Arborist and founder of the non-profit Nevada Plants, Lisa Ortega, joins us to discuss why trees are the answer to our heat problems, how this disproportionally affects communities of color, and why we might just be able to dub her the Lorax of Las Vegas.