VIDEO: A short documentary about the sabotage and corruption that took place at the NLV UCAAT.

In 2024, building began on a 1.5 million dollar project called the North Las Vegas (NLV) Urban Center for Advanced Agricultural Technologies (UCAAT). This was funded by a congressional directive and administered by the City of North Las Vegas (CNLV). It was designed as an advanced, urban, community-centric food and agriculture research and production center offering a multitude of services to include industry training, community education, and even a farmers market. The NLV UCAAT's purpose was all about discovering how sustainable and next-gen technologies can modernize and help support the food system at the local scale and serve as a model for the region. The NLV UCAAT would be located at the Zion United Methodist Church (Zion UMC) as part of an agreement with the City to use designated areas of their property for urban agriculture development in alignment with the CNLV urban core redevelopment plan. The NLV UCAAT was created by Energy Tree who was a partner in that plan. Energy Tree also helped develop the City’s urban agriculture overlay zone, the first of its kind in the state, and funded the building of the Energy Tree Indoor Research and Production Farm, which they located at Zion UMC to support the City’s plan. Energy Tree leased the entire northern end of the church building for their indoor farm which featured a reception area, offices, a board room for collaborations, and a large open area fitted with hydroponic technologies, microscopes, 3D printing, and various innovations. This privately funded, hi-tech indoor farm formed the UCAAT Core, which served as a bridge designed to connect the community to the much larger federally funded NLV UCAAT expansion project. It was for these reasons Energy Tree was selected to plan, design, develop, manage, and provide the special expertise needed to bring this project to successful completion.

3D conceptual designs from the early stages of the NLV UCAAT's development.

During the planning stage Energy Tree helped secure two additional federal grants that brought the total amount in federal funding to around $2,700,000. Unfortunately, after the funding became available, numerous accounts started arising about fraudulent activities happening at the NLV UCAAT, which eventually reached alarming levels with hundreds of thousands of dollars being allocated for misappropriations from the start. Then, on February 18th 2025, the Energy Tree team told Zion UMC that this fraud and government waste was going to be reported. Over the next three weeks, partners were notified of Zion’s activities and a correction plan was set in motion to fix the problem. However, Zion UMC and the CNLV Community Services and Engagement (CSE) department put up a heavy resistance to this mid-course correction and strayed away from grant objectives. Then, on March 10th 2025, they declared that they would now align with a different plan with different objectives then those that were federally approved. Then, the following month, on April 16th during a recorded meeting, they presented their illegitimate plan to Energy Tree, which was to remove Energy Tree as management and special expertise, cease all current and future NLV UCAAT programming, and distribute any remaining NLV UCAAT funding to themselves and spend it on different things other than budgeted NLV UCAAT expenses.

Energy Tree rejected their plan and recognized it as fraudulent since it was not authorized or authenticated by the appropriate people. They then gave specific and detailed justification for their rejection. This included the fact that the NLV UCAAT is a directive of the 117th second session of the United States Congress, noting that the congressional record specifically states that $1,500,000 will be allocated to the “North Las Vegas Urban Center for Advanced Agricultural Technologies”. This language is iron-clad and descriptive of the project’s purpose because centers of agriculture are defined by the USDA and US code. The NLV UCAAT’s purpose and objectives are described in its name and can not be altered without statutory authority. Additionally, the congressional directive is funded through HUD and required a detailed narrative, scope of work, budget, and completed environmental assessment to start building the project.

All of that information would have to change and be submitted to HUD for approval, but even if it did, HUD does not have the statutory authority to change the congressional directive. Furthermore, all NLV UCAAT contracts and agreements were based upon certifications, qualifications, expertise, business services, licensing, and anything else associated with the directive and would all need to be changed which would be particularly challenging regarding everyone's established roles and responsibilities. Lastly, before Zion UMC and the CSE department could even begin this halfwitted venture, they still needed authorization from the city’s UCAAT grant administrator to start legitimately moving in their deviated direction, which they did not have.

Congressional record approving the North Las Vegas Urban Center for Advanced Agricultural Technologies.

Nonetheless, after this rejection, Zion UMC and the CSE department stopped communication and went silent. They were going to do their plan and attempt to destroy the NLV UCAAT project anyways. Sadly, someone from the Energy Tree team went against their company protocols and tried to stop the federal grant feeding frenzy by attempting to stand unprotected between the 2.7 million dollars in federal funding and the money-hungry Zion UMC leadership and CSE department. This was unwise, and this vulnerable individual was mercilessly mentally and emotionally attacked by their leaders who were fully infected with insatiable greed. Hopefully this individual recovers from their traumatic stress. This stands as a reminder to use extreme caution and be on guard, shielded with thick protection when you put yourself between hungry animals and their food. Even if you lovingly brought the food to them and care about them very much. They are not to be trusted. They can and likely will attack you, especially if they are infectious. One should never trust their feelings in these situations, instead it is better to trust your instincts.

Energy Tree continued to remain resolute in its posture regarding the congressional directive, so Zion UMC and the CSE department declared business against them. This meant a war was being conducted under the cover of standard operating procedures. which included slow-rolling critical concerns between different elusive Zion UMC contacts and City departments. Their first maneuver started when the CSE department agreed to fully support Zion UMC and gave them the power and authority of the City of North Las Vegas to do what ever they wanted against Energy Tree without consequences. Afterwards, Zion UMC proceeded to launch psychological attacks of constant stress and mayhem by locking exits in the building, mischievously setting up alarms, raising room temperatures, creating various obstacles, and subverting Energy Tree's workmanship. The City knew of this and fully supported Zion in authorizing them to do these activities. Zion then launched their physical attacks which were unique and subtle. The garden manager would blow large infestations of pests he raised around the entire NLV UCAAT garden, even towards workers. He also would put pesticides on some of the food growing in the garden which caused numerous allergic reactions. The City knew of this and they did nothing about it. Corporate sabotage and espionage were common place and no matter how much people complained and asked for intervention from the City of North Las Vegas, they just kept ignoring it, making their inaction beyond negligent.

When their efforts hadn’t stopped Energy Tree from their federal directive, Zion and the City both began a financial attack by refusing to pay for vital NLV UCAAT budgeted items and withheld Energy Tree’s payment for their services due to invalid and non-existent reasons. But to insure project fulfillment In spite of this, Energy Tree privately funded everything the City and Zion were responsible to pay for but didn’t. Energy Tree successfully completed several one-of-a-kind educational programs never seen before in the Las Vegas Valley and brought advanced agriculture education and training to over 200 people in under 75 days with amazing reviews written by participants that took classes and participated in the programs.

Photo gallery showcasing some of the activities and programs that took place at the NLV UCAAT.

With all of this success coming from Energy Tree that was against the will of Zion UMC and the CSE department, Zion UMC had become inebriated with belligerent hatred and desperate to eliminate all NLV UCAAT programming and those responsible for it’s completion. even declaring that all UCAAT signage needed to be taken down. Then suddenly, many of the plants in the garden that Energy Tree purchased and planted started showing signs of mysterious early decay, a possible sign of herbicide use. That is when Energy Tree canceled further classes at Zion UMC and moved all remaining classes to another, much safer location. Soon after, Energy Tree's plants in the NLV UCAAT garden were removed as they suddenly had massive signs of quick decay, It wasn't fully understood what was causing this, but Energy Tree took no chances and discarded their plants completely. Later, It was discovered that evidence suggests the soil itself was being poisoned with herbicide instead of the leaves, possibly in an effort to avoid detection from Energy Tree’s privately owned security cameras.

Whatever was in those beds was something so dangerous that soon after Energy Tree's departure, Zion UMC emptied the brand-new soil out of the beds and placed a barrier between the soil and the dirt ground. That was a terrible sight to see because it meant those who spent a lot of time In the NLV UCAAT garden have likely been seriously poisoned. And it turned out that was true, with multiple reports of moderate to severe symptoms of Round-Up® exposure coming from people who spent a lot of time at the NLV UCAAT garden. But don’t take my word for it, watch the video at the top for a better perspective.

New soil being removed from NLV UCAAT garden beds shortly after Energy Tree's departure from the project.