STATELINE, Nev. — Standing beneath the forest-green peaks of the Sierra Nevada, President Barack Obama drew a connection Wednesday between conservation efforts and stopping global warming, describing the two environmental challenges as inseparably linked.

Obama used the first stop on a two-day conservation tour to try to showcase how federal and local governments can effectively team up to address a local environmental concern like iconic Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada. Obama told a sunbaked crowd of several thousand in a small lakeside town that “our conservation effort is more critical, more urgent than ever.”

“When we protect our lands, it helps us protect the climate of the future,” Obama said, joined by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, California Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Obama’s brief stop along the Nevada-California border came at the start of an 11-day international tour that will take the president to Asia for his final time as president. Throughout the trip, Obama is hoping to elevate issues of climate change and conservation as he works to lock in his environmental legacy.

Addressing leaders of island nations later Wednesday in Honolulu, Obama urged countries large and small to unite behind a common effort on climate and to “row as one,” arguing that no nation can tackle the issue itself.

“When it comes to climate change, there’s a dire possibility of us getting off-course, and we can’t allow that to happen,” Obama said.

The lush island offered Obama a chance to emphasize a theme he’s returned to frequently in his climate campaign: that remote islands are the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and should help lead the fight to slow global warming.

To that end, the president planned an unusual presidential visit Thursday to Midway Atoll, a speck of land halfway between Asia and North America where Obama recently expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Then the president heads to China for the Group of 20 major economies summit where climate change is once again expected to be high on the agenda.