Habitats under the influence of human activities have different climatic conditions than natural systems that frequently are used as reference for restoration. Furthermore, historic systems are not always good reference for restoration projects because local climate has been changed by human impacts. The Punhuato mountain is a natural protected area; in the vicinity of Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán, México. Restoration projects in this natural protected area need to consider the influence of Morelia, because of the heat island effect of the urban area. We evaluated survival of Ceiba aesculifolia and Quercus castanea following a mesic-xeric gradient in the slope facing the urban area to determine feasibility of restoring oak forest or subtropical vegetation in the area.   Overall Ceiba survival is higher than oaks survival. In the North slope, Ceiba had a survival of 73 % and oaks 81 %. In the South slope, Ceibas survival was 84 % and oak survival was 46 %.  Our results shows the influence of the urban heat island due to the orientation (SW) of the predominant winds in the valley of Morelia  The potential distribution of these species do not match the historical distribution that can be inferred from several sources.