AT: Wildscapes Workshop- Houston Grows Cooler: Heat Mapping and Restoration of Urban Forest To Fight Climate Change

Abstract of Presentation: The Greater Houston region is getting hotter. Since 1970, nighttime temperatures in our city have risen by more than 5-degree Fahrenheit and daytime temperature are set to soar this century. What to do? Join The Nature Conservancy in Texas’s Jaime González as he describes how multiple partners recently mapping heat across Harris County and the City of Houston and how this data can be used to plant diverse, pocket forests, essential for cooling the city, providing more equitable access to nature, and augmenting biodiversity and sense of place.

Biographical information: Jaime González serves as the Houston Urban Conservation Programs Manager for The Nature Conservancy in Texas. His work prioritizes building partnerships, designing and managing projects, and assisting communities and other organizations to help make Houston a more healthy, resilient, physically cooler, better-connected, and biologically diverse city. Jaime is one of a growing corps of 30 Nature Conservancy city leads using nature-based solutions to create Healthier Cities throughout North America and the world.

Mr. González also serves as the Vice President and Co-founder of the Coastal Prairie Partnership, as
the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the North American Association for Environmental Education,
and as a member of Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Texas Wildlife Diversity Advisory Committee. He has
worked for 21 years in conservation and environmental education in the Greater Houston region.