As temperatures rise, most vulnerable communities are often the hottest

Summer 2024 in Albuquerque is on track to be one of the hottest on record — adding to a string of high temps in recent years that have packed a punch. But heat in the metro isn’t evenly distributed — it tends to be most intense in historically underserved areas, in part due to an urban heat island effect and a lack of trees.

The city and its partners like Tree New Mexico are working to level the playing field by planting more trees in such neighborhoods and in the process cool down the entire city.

The initiative joins other city efforts — including a pledge to add 100,000 trees across Albuquerque by 2030. So far, the city said a little over a quarter of that goal has been achieved.

Mitigating the higher temperatures is also important because heat islands produce more air pollution and higher energy costs and contribute to heat related illnesses and death, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency .

“Trees are a crucial element to combat heat island effects,” said Dave Simon, the city’s Parks & Recreation Department director. “Not only do we need to maintain our urban tree canopy, we need to rebuild it and expand it in many places in the city.”

Read about efforts to identify Santa Fe heat islands in our sister publication .

City forester Sean O’Neill said heat islands generally pop up in areas with high amounts of hardscape like parking lots and buildings — surfaces that absorb heat during the day and cause temperatures to stay higher at night. He said areas in Albuquerque with some of the most pavement and lowest tree counts are also some of the city’s most underserved — Downtown, much of the Southwest quadrant and the International District.

100,000 by 2030

In 2019, Mayor Tim Keller’s administration launched the ambitious program to plant 100,000 saplings in the city by 2030.

Simon said the program slowed down during the pandemic, but that at least 26,000 have been planted so far. Officials want to plant more trees at city-owned sites like parks, open space and medians, but also on private land, which accounts for as much as 80% of the city’s plantable area.

While the Parks & Recreation budget for tree planting averages about $600,000 a year, the effort recently picked up steam after the department landed a $5 million federal grant for tree planting in the underserved neighborhoods — a project called ABQ NeighborWoods. Under the program, homeowners choose native trees from an approved list. A landscaper then approves the tree’s location in front of the home and on its planting strip — city property located between the sidewalk and the street that is typically managed by the homeowner.

Once in the ground, the responsibility for watering and maintaining the tree is handed over to the homeowner.

Compounding effect

O’Neill said the NeighborWoods program is essential for neighborhoods because the value of tree shade can’t be overstated. He said trees can drop surface temperatures by as much as 20 degrees.

“Instead of engineering shade, we’re trying to create more shaded spaces with something that’s living,” he said. “The shade underneath a tree is cooler than the shade underneath a shade structure.”

The more active a neighborhood is in the program, the more compounding the effect, O’Neill added.

“As more and more trees are closer together and wind goes through those trees, it’ll also kind of do its best to cool the entire area, not just like the shade underneath it,” he said.

Simon said Downtown’s Wells Park neighborhood is one of the areas that’s benefitting from the program, in part to mitigate recent losses at the former Coronado Park. He said the area could see as many as 400 new trees planted in the coming months.

“The canopy coverage needs augmenting,” he said. “Most of those trees were already at the end of their natural lifespan.”

Simon said the park had contained large elm trees that were likely planted in the 1930s and 1940s.

The park was the site of a controversial homeless encampment that precipitated its closure and a later decision by the city to auction it off — a move opposed by the Wells Park Neighborhood Association and others.

Shovels in the ground

Simon and O’Neill are tasked with motivating homeowners to get involved, whether through providing resources or directing them to incentives like the “ Tree-Bate ” program by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority that helps offset planting and maintenance costs.

“There are compounding returns over the lifetime of a tree,” Simon said. “Having your house shaded can save you thousands of dollars in its lifetime.”

He said if a resident notices their neighborhood is lacking trees, they can contact their City Councilor to inquire about the NeighborWoods program.

“I can’t go plant a tree in someone’s front yard, but working with the NeighborWoods program, that’s where a neighborhood association or a neighborhood group can reach out to their City Councilor to express their interest,” Simon said.

He said the community has responded well so far and he’s confident the city will reach its goal of 100,000 trees by 2030 — perhaps exceeding it.

“It gives us great optimism that we can keep this rolling,” Simon said. “If everybody took a pledge to plant one tree on their property we would blow away our goal.”

More information is at letsplantabq.org .

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