Last year, the city of Las Vegas reached a record 120 degrees during the peak of summer. The Clark County Coroner's Office found that heat was a factor in more than 500 deaths. Now, city, county and local advocates are planting thousands of trees to help bring down temperatures in the hottest neighborhoods. Trees can have a significant impact on mitigating heat.
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Ryan Kellman
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Topline:
Climate change is driving more dangerous summer heat across the U.S. Las Vegas, which reached 120 degrees last summer, is planting thousands of trees to help cool its hottest neighborhoods.
Why it matters: Climate change is driving up peak temperatures in cities across the country, and last summer, Las Vegas reached a record high of 120 degrees. Temperatures hit 100 degrees or higher for more than two months straight. That summer heat contributed to more than 500 deaths, according to the Clark County Coroner's Office. Experts say heat-related deaths are likely undercounted across the country.
What Vegas is doing: The city, county and nonprofits are all stepping up efforts to plant more trees and provide more shade — especially in the hottest neighborhoods. "Our 2050 goal is to plant 60,000 trees within the city of Las Vegas, and that breaks down to a little over 2,000 trees a year," said Brad Daseler, the city's urban forester.
Read on ... to learn how the effort is going.
Trees in the desert are like oxygen at high altitude — scarce and precious.
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Climate change shapes where and how we live. That's why NPR is dedicating a week to stories about solutions for building and living on a hotter planet.
During a recent spring tree giveaway sponsored by Nevada's Clark County, the team had a couple of hundred young trees ready and lined up for residents. All the trees disappeared within an hour.
Lulu Banks was eligible for two free trees. That's because her neighborhood in North Las Vegas is a designated "urban heat island" — a specific area that's hotter than other neighborhoods, in part because of lack of shade.
Urban forester Brad Daseler walks through a tree nursery in Las Vegas. The city has a goal of planting 60,000 trees by 2050.
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"I don't have any trees on my property," Banks said.
She knew exactly where she was going to plant the new trees: one close to her front window and another outside her bedroom. She hopes the shade will help lower her air conditioning bill in the summer.
Research has shown that trees can lower the temperature in the area around them significantly, by at least 10 degrees. And Las Vegas needs all the cooling it can get.
Climate change is driving up peak temperatures in cities across the country, and last summer, Las Vegas reached a record high of 120 degrees. Temperatures hit 100 degrees or higher for more than two months straight.
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That summer heat contributed to more than 500 deaths, according to the Clark County Coroner's Office. Experts say heat-related deaths are likely undercounted across the country.
It prompted an increased focus on finding ways to help keep people safe from the heat.
In May, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring the state's biggest cities and counties to create heat mitigation plans by next summer; it was signed into law this month.
In Las Vegas, the city, county and nonprofits are all stepping up efforts to plant more trees and provide more shade — especially in the hottest neighborhoods.
The lack of tree canopy in many Las Vegas neighborhoods is an important issue. Research has shown trees can lower the temperature in the area around them by at least 10 degrees. Temperatures can range significantly more depending on the surroundings, but even 10 degrees can make a big difference.
Choinard leads the Southern Nevada Heat Resilience Lab, which studies how heat affects people and communities and then recommends data-based solutions. The lab was created in 2023 and is funded primarily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency.
Studies show heat disproportionately affects lower-income neighborhoods. This has a ripple effect, according to Ariel Choinard of the Southern Nevada Heat Resilience Lab. People in these neighborhoods end up paying more to cool their homes. And they may have to choose between keeping their home at a livable temperature and other necessities like food or medication.
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In April, Choinard visited several urban heat island neighborhoods to demonstrate how the built environment can dramatically increase surface temperatures, and the significant difference trees can make.
A 2022 heat mapping project found that several areas, including East Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, can experience temperatures up to 11 degrees hotter than other parts of the region. Each of these neighborhoods is relatively poorer than other parts of Las Vegas.
"Folks here have to work harder and longer to afford to cool their homes," Choinard said. "And we know that people make really tough trade-offs when it's superhot."
That can mean choosing between keeping their homes at a safe and comfortable temperature and paying for groceries, or limiting medication.
Choinard pointed out a mature tree providing plenty of shade in a neighborhood without many others.
"It's this tree that's doing really great work here," she said.
On this day in April, it was 95 degrees out. But under the tree, it was much cooler. Choinard measured the temperature on the ground with an infrared thermometer: 87 degrees.
Trees help cool the air through a process known as transpiration cooling. Essentially, trees release water into the atmosphere from their leaves, cooling the air around them. Tree cover also provides shade, keeping sidewalks, roads and buildings from absorbing and trapping as much of the sun's heat.
At the Desert Inn Estates, a mobile home community with few trees in East Las Vegas, Choinard pointed the infrared thermometer at a picnic table sitting directly in the sun.
Many older neighborhoods and mobile home communities, such as the Desert Inn Estates, still have palm trees and cactuses, which provide a particular visual aesthetic but little shade. Local leaders are moving toward nonnative, drought-tolerant trees that can provide shade.
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"130 degrees on a bench next to a table," she said, reading the device.
Asphalt can get even hotter: The asphalt parking space near the picnic table registered 144 degrees.
That's hot enough that Las Vegas has seen an increase in burns — among people and pets — from hot pavement during the summer.
Mike Michel is a resident at Desert Inn Estates. Just about every afternoon he and his dog Suzy take advantage of the small park's relative shade.
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Planting 2,000 trees a year
That's why the county, the city and nonprofits are all increasing efforts to plant more trees in the desert.
"Our 2050 goal is to plant 60,000 trees within the city of Las Vegas, and that breaks down to a little over 2,000 trees a year," said Brad Daseler, the city's urban forester.
Daseler is bringing in mostly nonnative plants that provide shade and are drought tolerant, like oak trees from northern Mexico and eucalyptus trees from Australia.
"Las Vegas is a pretty challenging environment for plant material in general because we do get so warm, but we also have the ability to freeze," Daseler said. "So finding trees that can survive in both of those climate extremes absolutely is a challenge."
And you can't just plant any tree in any place, Daseler says. There's nuance and strategy to what kind of trees are chosen for what areas.
Walking through the city tree nursery, he pointed out a young bur oak.
"Those would be trees that we would use more in our park spaces," he said. Other trees, like the Indian rosewood, can better withstand the harshness of being planted in a median, surrounded by asphalt and concrete, with a "high heat load."
The region is currently in a drought that the U.S. Drought Monitor has classified as "exceptional" — its severest category.
So there's a delicate balancing act, Daseler said, in maximizing both trees and water.
That's a constant challenge in the desert, says Choinard.
"There's always that question of, what is the highest use of a gallon of water?" she said. "But when we're talking about the long-term viability of our communities, I think a tree is a great thing to put water on."
Teaching the next generation
The tree-planting effort has also spread to some schools, which are starting garden clubs.
On a weekend this spring, students and parents gathered in the garden at Booker Elementary School. Students planted trees, fruits and vegetables in beds — each with its own letter, spelling out S-T-E-M (for science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
"Don't give plants too much water, but you need it to have some water so it can grow," said third-grader Donovan Pantoja.
His mom, Natalie Hernandez, said the project instills positive life lessons, and teaches kids to be environmentally conscious.
"And then they may teach their kids," she said. "And hopefully that trickles [down], to try to conserve and help the planet."
People walk through a courtyard full of small publishers during LITLIT.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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Topline:
The free book festival LITLIT celebrates small independent publishers on the West Coast from Seattle to Santa Monica. It’s returning to L.A. the weekend of June 6 and 7.
Why it matters: The “Big Five” major publishers dominate publishing in the country. The literary fair highlights works from small presses on the West Coast.
The backstory: The Los Angeles Review of Books started LITLIT in 2019, to introduce LARB publishing workshop students to the industry; it has since grown into a festival celebrating independent publishers and other local literary arts practices.
Read on... for details on the event.
Held by the Los Angeles Review of Books since 2019, LITLIT, or The Little Literary Fair, started out as a way to introduce students from workshops to the publishing industry.
It has since grown into a gathering of independent West Coast publishers from Seattle to Santa Monica. This year’s iteration on June 6 and 7 is the biggest yet, with more than 50 publishers participating in the event at Sci-Arc in Downtown L.A.
People look through a small library of used books from "A Good Used Book," a Los Angeles based book pop-up, during LITLIT 2024.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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It’s ‘small’ lit
The fair aims to get the public in front of books that don’t originate from the so-called “Big Five” publishers — behemoths like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins.
The Little Literary Fair Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) 960 E. Third St., Los Angeles Preview day: Friday, June 5, 6 p.m. Full fair: Saturday, June 6, to Sunday, June 7, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Free admission Info and RSVP
“They really get to control what people get to see, and so we hope LITLIT lets people see more of what is out there and what they can support directly,” said Emily VanKoughnett, public programs and engagement director for LARB.
One of VanKoughnett’s favorite independent publishers will be there. Two Lines Press, the publishing arm of San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation, deals specifically in translated works.
Two Lines Press, which specializes in translated works, show off their books to attendees of LITLIT.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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They’ve published authors from across the world, translating books from more than 100 different languages into English.
“ We do our work in quiet rooms, so it's really nice to be able to meet readers and talk to them about what's interesting them. These festivals are really valuable to us in that way,” said CJ Evans, publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Lines.
Pressed locally
Local favorite Angel City Press, which operates under the auspices of L.A. Public Library, will also be there with one of their newly published titles, Los Angeles Central Library POPS, that celebrates 100 years of the Central Library.
People at LITLIT 2024 look through different small presses.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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You’ll also find LA-based Errant Press, which specializes in books that break the traditional form — like a poem printed on measuring tape or a matchbox sized poetry collection.
“It’s really cool to see the kinds of risks that people are able to take, the kinds of communities they’re able to serve and really highlight here on the West Coast,” said Irene Yoon, executive director of LARB.
Panels, printing presses, and workshops
The two-day fair also hosts various panels and workshops, including one on the art of comedic writing and another on how to tell the stories of Los Angeles through archival materials.
“This is, I think, the most panels we've ever done,” VanKoughnett said.
People sit down for a panel discussion at LITLIT 2024.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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Workshops on how to navigate the literary world with a completed manuscript and making your own comics and zines are also on the itinerary.
“It's not until we're all in the same room with all our best books literally out on the table that you get to see kind of what a phenomenal publishing culture Los Angeles truly has,” said Terri Accomazzo, editorial director of Angel City Press.
Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published May 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Stephanie Trujillo and her mother Linda Alashti have co-owned Wet Paws since 2023.
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Josie Huang
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Topline:
After the Eaton Fire displaced most of its customers, Altadena pet groomer Wet Paws faced a June 1 deadline to decide whether to renew its lease. A social media plea sparked an outpouring of community support.
The backstory: Wet Paws estimates its lost up to 90% of its customer base after the fire, leaving it struggling to stay afloat.
What's next: The business has decided to renew its lease banking on Altadena's recovery and more customers returning to the area.
Running a small business is tough under normal circumstances. Running one in a wildfire burn scar can feel nearly impossible.
That's the reality many Altadena business owners are still navigating nearly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire destroyed the community and the local economy. Businesses are grappling with how do you stay open when so many of your customers are gone?
At Wet Paws, a pet grooming business along Lake Avenue, that question recently came to a head.
The shop reopened in January but business remained slow. Wet Paws co-owner Stephanie Trujillo estimates the fire had displaced up to 90% of their customers.
Marley, a Cane Corso from Pasadena, went for her first grooming session at Wet Paws in more than a year.
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Then came a conversation with their landlord several months ago that forced a decision.
"He reached out and said, 'Are you going to re-sign your lease?'" Trujillo recalled.
The answer wasn't obvious.
Marketing Lab+ Los Angeles County has launched a program offering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to eligible Altadena businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.
"I said, unfortunately, we're not even making it. We're paying out of our own pocket," she said. "So he said, 'I'll give you until June 1.'"
The deadline meant Trujillo and her mother, Linda Alashti, who have owned the business together since 2023, had only a few months to figure out whether Wet Paws had a future in Altadena.
Wet Paws is hardly alone. As businesses struggle, Los Angeles County recently launched a programoffering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to fire-affected businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.
A flag banner and sandwich board on the sidewalk outside Wet Paws advertises its services.
But relief has not arrived quickly enough for many businesses.
One particularly slow April Sunday at Wet Paws drove home how dire the situation had become, when they had only one customer.
As she drove home to Fontana, Trujillo began composing a social media post.
"So this isn't easy for us to share," the post began, "but I wanted to reach out with an open heart and hope."
In the message, Trujillo asked the community to book appointments and spread the word to help their business survive.
Before posting it, Trujillo showed it to her mother.
Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes takes care of a basset hound client.
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"We're very prideful, and it's very hard to ask people for help," she said. "I felt embarrassed that we had to ask the community for help."
Her mother's advice was simple. "Just post it," she told her. "The worst that's going to happen is nobody sees it or nobody cares."
Instead, the opposite happened. By the next day, the post had been viewed and shared hundreds of times across Instagram and Facebook.
The phone started ringing, said Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes.
"I got well over 50 calls," Ranes said. "We booked out for the last three weeks of the month when we made that post.”
Customers told Alashti that they “didn't know you were back, because they don't come this way anymore.”
Decor inside Wet Paws embraces a playful canine motif.
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Among those who returned was Penny Dahlstrom, a Pasadena resident whose 113-pound Cane Corso Marley had been a Wet Paws regular before the fire.
Dahlstrom had tried taking Marley to a large pet store chain while Wet Paws was closed.
"My husband went in to pick her up, and he hears crying, and it was her," Dahlstrom said. "That's not just her nature."
The social media appeal didn't just bring back former customers. It also introduced the business to new ones, Trujillo said.
But recovery remains uneven.
Some days are still slow. And the shop continues to deal with lingering fire-related electrical damage in the back of the building.
Wet Paws is operating on a temporary electrical system, limiting how much power it can use at any given time.
"If we run our AC, and the neighbors run their AC, we lose power," Trujillo said.
As the June 1 lease deadline approached, Trujillo and her mother weighed their options. They could walk away and cut their losses. Or they could commit to rebuilding alongside a community they had come to love.
Ultimately, they thought about the response to their post and the customers who had shown up when the business needed them most. And they had faith that Altadena would rebuild to its full strength.
They chose to renew the lease for another three years.
"I can't imagine what the community is going through, losing their homes and losing everything that they had," Trujillo said. "Yet they're still coming back."
And as long as they do, she said Wet Paws will be there for them and their fur babies.
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Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published May 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Mural by Geoff McFetridge.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Topline:
A collective of artists has painted more than 70 murals across seven elementary schools in and around Los Angeles to bring art to students in under-resourced communities.
Why now: The collective just wrapped up their latest murals at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.
The backstory: The idea to paint murals at schools came from Erik Caruso, a fifth-grade teacher in Paramount, after he found out that many of his students had never been to an art museum.
On a recent Monday, students at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights started their day like no other — with a tour of the murals hand-painted over the weekend across the playground.
It’s the latest of seven elementary schools in and around L.A. to get the treatment. Over 70 murals in the last 13 years, brought by a collective of artists to students in under-resourced neighborhoods with little access to art education.
“The kids were so excited,” said Stefanie Barbee, a math teacher at Breed. “Just pure joy.”
The students snaked through the paintings on handball courts and school walls: cartoon animals, bright orange flowers, a circle of meticulously painted lines. The works span genres and sensibilities.
Mural by artist hi-dutch.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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“It's grassroots. We're not getting money from anyone,” said Erik Caruso, the fifth-grade teacher in Paramount who's the group glue. To them, they are just an assembly of like-minded friends — and friends of friends — who spend one weekend out of the year hanging out and painting murals for school kids.
But the collective is anything but typical. It includes artists like the late Rich Jacobs, who died from leukemia this year; Tim Kerr; pro skater Ray Barbee; and Japanese artists Yusuke Hanai and hi-dutch. The vibe's always low-key, and somehow they've managed to stay under the radar.
Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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“The kids have no idea that they show in huge galleries or have pieces hanging in museums,” said writer Martin Wong, co-founder of the pioneering Asian pop culture magazine Giant Robot. "Or they're famous in the skateboarding scene or surf or music."
Their reward is the Monday morning after, seeing the happiness on the kids’ faces.
“The artists are waiting all weekend — it’s that moment,” Caruso said.
Mural by artists Sandy Yang and James Hamblin.
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James Hamblin was at Breed for the meet-and-greet earlier this month. He painted a mural designed by his partner Sandy Yang on one of the handball walls.
“Sandy's design is pretty abstract, so it was interesting because the kids were [asking], you know, ‘ What is it?’” Hamblin said. “It was great because I could tell them I had no idea and like, ‘What do you guys think it is?’"
Bring the art museum to the school
Erik Caruso.
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The idea came to Caruso in 2011, after he took about two dozen students from his Paramount school to MOCA and discovered that only four had ever been to an art museum.
“I wonder if there's a way we can bring the art museum to the school,” he said.
Caruso, a 24-year veteran, was no stranger to bringing art — and artists — directly to his students. In 2009, he launched a monthly art project for fifth-graders that culminated in a year-end show where they met and shared work with living contemporary artists.
Caruso's 5th grade art project, featuring works by artist Tim Kerr.
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The murals were next.
They painted their first ones at his school in 2012. Soon, the project expanded to the rest of Los Angeles.
Crew at work
Mural by artist Chris Johanson.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artist Chris Johanson.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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The painting takes place between Friday and Sunday, but planning takes months.
At Breed, the connection was made through math teacher Barbee — wife of Ray — who is on a two-year stint at the Boyle Heights school to help students catch up on the subject.
“I had sort of planted that seed that at some point I would love for a school I was working at to be the recipient of the beautiful work,” she said.
Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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She brought Caruso out for a site visit last September.
“He has a really amazing kind of vision about where to place the artists … based on just their artwork and where it is in relation to the street view,” Barbee said.
Next came an introduction to the principal and the approval process.
“One of the biggest challenges with what we are doing is, you know, they want flipping dolphins and stuff like that,” Caruso said. “But we want to cross over into fine art pieces.”
Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Paying it forward
Caruso estimated that as many as 40 artists and musicians have joined the effort.
The core group now, he said, is about 11 people, and friends and families often tag along to help out, given they have just 16 hours over three days to finish the job.
Mural by artist Oitama.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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Mural by artist Lori Damiano.
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Among the regulars: Wong and his wife, Wendy Lau, who once organized DIY punk shows to fund music education at their daughter's Chinatown school. In Caruso, they saw a kindred spirit.
Caruso later brought the collective to paint at that school and eventually invited their daughter, Linda Lindas bassist Eloise Wong, to join his fifth-grade art and music project.
“All of these kids on the blacktop were all just screaming their hearts out,” Eloise said. “It's cool how Erik — Mr. Caruso to them — shows them, like, raw ways to express themselves through cool art.”
Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published May 30, 2026 5:00 AM
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Altadena Musicians
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Topline:
A new free record shop for survivors of last year’s Eaton and Palisades fires is celebrating with a grand opening party Saturday night.
The backstory: After losing his home in the Eaton Fire, Brandon Jay founded Altadena Musicians to get instruments back into the hands of musicians who lost gear in the fires. Now he’s doing that with vinyl records, too.
Read on ... to find details.
A new free record shop for survivors of last year’s Eaton and Palisades fires is celebrating with a grand opening party Saturday night.
After losing his home in the Eaton Fire, Brandon Jay founded Altadena Musicians to get instruments back into the hands ofmusicians who lost their gear in fires.
Now he’s doing that with vinyl records, too.
Record Shop grand opening Altadena Music Center 1260 Lincoln Ave., Suite 1300, Pasadena Saturday, May 30 Record donations starting at 1 p.m. Grand opening party is 6 - 9 p.m. For more info and to register a free ticket, check out the Altadena Music Center event page. LAist is a media sponsor for the event.
“We want to be here to help replace those items and support music in people’s lives that can’t necessarily afford it right now because they’re saving all their pennies just to live and also just to rebuild their homes,” Jay told LAist.
Jay says they’ve seen roughly 3,000 records donated so far. Now they have a dedicated space on Lincoln Avenue where fire survivors can sign up for time slots and shop for up to 10 records a month.
“It’s a really lovely distraction but it kind of keeps me going as well just to know that we’re trying to build something great for the community and keep us all moving forward,” Jay said.
The store will carry copies of the benefit album, Gimme Shelter: Songs for LA Fire Relief. The compilation features cover art by Shepard Fairey and L.A. specific tracks from artists like Elliott Smith ("Angeles" of course), Norah Jones, The Flaming Lips, as well as a cover of "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads performed by Jay and about 50 other fire-impacted musicians.
