Brian Ler on WNYC, now our climate story of the week, which we're doing every Tuesday

on the show all this year, forested urban areas may sound like an oxymoron, forested urban

areas.

But our next guest says that they are a key to combating extreme heat in cities like

we've had in so many parts of the country this year.

With us now to discuss the cooling effects of certain kinds of natural areas, particularly

in New York City, is Sarah Charlotte Powers, Executive Director of the Natural Areas Conservancy,

which recently released a report comparing the cooling effect of natural versus landscaped

green spaces in 12 cities across the United States.

Sarah, thanks for coming on.

Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's a real pleasure to be here.

Can you start by telling us what you mean by natural areas?

How do natural areas differ from other sorts of greenery?

Sure.

So, natural areas are places within the urban landscape that look and feel like the

woods.

So, if you can picture places like the Northwoods in Van Courtland Park or the Green Belt

in Central Staten Island or the Forest Park or Cassina Park or Cunningham Park in Central

Queens, these larger intact woodland areas function very similarly to rural forests and

offer tremendous cooling benefits as I'll describe, but also recreational and social benefits

...