More trees, please: Twin Cities work to mitigate impacts of dangerous heat

During a normal week, Salvation Army Major Lisa Spicer said about 60–80 people eat lunch at the nonprofit’s Payne Avenue location on St. Paul’s east side. But during July’s extraordinary heat wave, the center — which also serves as a Ramsey County public cooling center — saw upwards of 100 people each day. 

“To come into an air-conditioned building, and to be able to talk and maybe commiserate with some other people as well and just sit and have a nice cold bottle of water can mean the world to someone who is really struggling,” Spicer said.

While the coming days will offer some reprieve from the sauna-like conditions that have hovered over the Twin Cities, summer is hardly over. And in many urban neighborhoods, including near the Salvation Army Eastside, research shows that on-the-ground temperatures can rise well above city averages. As health professionals warn of dire impacts, nonprofits and city agencies are working to stave off the worst effects both in the short term and in years to come.

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Extreme heat can have negative health impacts on anyone, but especially people with preexisting health conditions like asthma, hypertension or other heart diseases, said Kenyata Carroll, a family nurse practitioner at Southside Community Health Services. The clinic, which receives federal funding to provide care to underserved populations, recently opened a new location on East Lake Street in Minneapolis.

Heat exposure for long periods without proper hydration can cause low blood pressure, strained breathing, dizziness and, in extreme cases, seizures, loss of consciousness and death. At Southside, Carroll has seen an uptick in patients with conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, likely exacerbated by the heat and poor air quality.

“People don’t realize how quickly [they can] become dehydrated in this type of weather,” Carroll said. “Just standing outside for five minutes can really, really have an abnormal effect on a person.”

Extreme heat also impacts geographical areas differently, including a phenomenon called the “urban heat island effect,” said Stefan Liess, a research scientist for the University of Minnesota’s Climate Adaptation Partnership.

Heat islands occur when areas with more streets, buildings and parking lots — surfaces that are impervious to water — trap energy and release it as heat. Urban centers and some neighborhoods, particularly those impacted by a history of discriminatory housing practices, also tend to have fewer trees, meaning there is less shade to cool the surfaces. 

Related: Parking lots get hot and are bad for storm runoff. Minneapolis, other cities are testing options.

In the summer months, Liess said the Twin Cities metro area averages about two to three degrees warmer than areas outside of the cities, although this can spike much higher during heat waves. “Whenever you have these spikes and temperature increases, often these spikes are dangerous situations, not only for human health itself but for the environment in general,” Liess said.

Within city limits, temperatures vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood. Data from Minneapolis and St. Paul shows temperatures tend to be higher in lower-income areas and neighborhoods with a greater percentage of non-white residents. 

Jayda Pounds is the sustainability program manager for the City of Minneapolis. She told MinnPost that the most impacted neighborhoods are nearer in proximity to industrial sites, have fewer trees and have seen less investment historically in green infrastructure, like rain gardens and parklands.

While the Twin Cities have developed short-term solutions to extreme heat like cooling centers in libraries, community centers and city buildings, they’re also investing in longer-term fixes. 

In May, St. Paul finalized its Climate Action and Resilience Plan aimed at mitigating “the impacts of our climate emergency.” It includes strategies like utilizing industrial “waste heat,” bolstering access to public cooling centers and planting 4,000 additional trees per year, “prioritizing areas … with high urban heat island vulnerability.” 

Related: Green Zone grant awardees announced

In 2017, Minneapolis identified two swaths of the city, called the Northside and Southside Green Zones, as areas prone to negative environmental impacts. Pounds explained that an official recognition of the areas has allowed residents and officials to “really petition and advocate for residents.” The Green Zones have advisory boards that meet regularly and, among other actions, award grants for modest projects to improve environmental sustainability.

Residents living in Green Zones can request a free tree to be planted in their yard, for example, to address the areas’ lack of shade.

More broadly, Saturday, Aug. 1, marks the start of the Minneapolis Tree Sale, a program available to all city residents offering trees at low cost to be planted on their property. Since its start 20 years ago, more than 30,000 trees have been sold.

Resources

Hennepin County cooling centers

Ramsey County resources and cooling centers

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