‘So excited’: UNLV program plants 18 trees in North Las Vegas neighborhood

Students, arborists-in-training and UNLV staff dug holes circling a dog park Friday morning as part of the university’s “Urban Forestry Initiative.”

The program is using a $5 million federal grant to plant trees across the Las Vegas Valley, targeting communities with below average tree cover. The goal is 3,000 trees in five years of the program, which started January 2024.

During Friday’s planting of 18 trees, participants gathered around two areas in the Cliffs at Dover community: a dog park and a strip of land in front of homes. Those working at the dog park occasionally got distracted as dogs sniffed them before going back to a bright red fire hydrant in the center.

“The goal for tree canopy cover in arid regions like the Mojave Desert is 15 percent,” said Alison Sloat, UNLV professor-in-residence and project lead. “We are at 2 percent right now in this neighborhood — 2 percent. So we are planting trees in neighborhoods like this to try to increase the tree canopy cover and cool off all of these neighborhoods.”

Trees cool off their surroundings both by providing shade and through the process of “transpiration,” in which they use energy to turn liquid water into water vapor. Sloat said areas like parking lots can be as much as 10 degrees cooler with trees than without.

Sloat added that residents frequently tell her how happy they are to have trees planted in their neighborhoods.

“They’re so excited about this,” she said. “And everyone loves trees. And we have far more demand than we will even be able to reach in five years. Right now, our waiting list for trees to be planted is probably about a year.”

The program involves physically planting trees and setting up irrigation systems, but developing future arborists is a big part as well. Program leads look for people from the same neighborhoods where they plant trees to become arborists-in-training through a workforce development program.

Jessica London, 39, lives in the same North Las Vegas community where Friday’s tree planting took place. She worked as a medical biller for about 17 years before applying for the arborist training program.

“It’s night and day,” London said. “Like, the medical world, you have deadlines; you have complete projects.”

Last year, three of UNLV’s four arborists-in-training got jobs from the City of Las Vegas and the Nevada Division of Forestry. London said she hopes to get hired as an arborist after her training program ends. She wants to work in a nursery hand pruning trees, as some of the other jobs can be too physically intense.

“Hand pruning, it’s easy,” London explained. “But high, big trees, they have long equipment that, physically, my body cannot hold or handle.”

Several people are involved in setting up the tree plantings before they even happen. First comes growing the trees. Program staff said they have about two thousand trees, each one gallon.

Once the trees are an adequate size, they need permission to plant somewhere in the community. Program coordinator Stephanie Ibarra said most trees go near schools or homes after property owners approve.

“Some people, they wanted a mesquite, because obviously it provides shade,” she said. “But they also like grilling, so they can even actually prune the tree and then use some of the wood for grilling.”

The Urban Forestry Initiative relies on a $5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. Most of that money goes to paying staff, Sloat said.

Sloat added with recent shakeups to federal funding, she worries about keeping the program running for the next five years.

“I keep praying every day that I don’t get the phone call that we have to stop,” she said.

Contact Finnegan Belleau at fbelleau@reviewjournal.com.