New York City is rethinking its urban landscape through one of its simplest and most visible elements: trees. City officials have released a new urban forestry plan that lays out how the city intends to raise tree‑canopy coverage from 23.4% to 30% by 2040. The strategy focuses on three main areas: planting more trees along streets, expanding canopy on private residential properties, and targeting neighborhoods with the least existing green space.Read More…

New York City is about to get more shade.

City officials released a new plan this week to shroud 30% of the five boroughs in tree canopy by 2040. The city’s current tree canopy cover is is 23.4% — or about 45,000 acres, equal to the size of Brooklyn.

Officials said the benefits of trees go beyond cool shade. More tree cover also mitigates flooding and increases habitat for wildlife.Read More…

Dan Lambe, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, and Ben Osborne, assistant commissioner of forestry and horticulture at NYC Parks, talk about Arbor Day and NYC’s new Urban Forest Plan for expanding the tree canopy.Read More…

The city’s first “Urban Forest Plan” shows tree coverage across the five boroughs is 23%.

It plans to grow that number to 30% by 2040.

Peggy Shepard, the executive director of We Act, an environmental justice group, joined “NY1 at Ten” on Friday to talk about how the lack of tree shade in low-income communities has dangerous impacts.Read More…

An urban forest plan for New York City was released this week by the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOEJC).

Designed and developed by WXY, the forest plan is essential to help cool New York as temperatures rise from global warming, and counteract historic inequities in lower-income neighborhoods that have less access to shade.Read More…

City leaders on Tuesday unveiled New York City’s first Urban Forest Plan, a long-term strategy to expand and protect the city’s tree canopy, with a focus on neighborhoods like Red Hook that have faced climate and infrastructure challenges.Read More…

New York City is gearing up for a serious shade upgrade. On April 21, 2026, the Mamdani administration rolled out a preliminary Urban Forest Plan that sets a big target: expand the city’s tree canopy to 30 percent by 2040, with a laser focus on neighborhoods that take the worst hit from extreme heat. The game plan mixes local street plantings with a broader citywide strategy, and both advocates and officials say the real test will be long-term money, staffing and care for all those new trees.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to greenify the city as part of his administration’s climate and environmental justice agenda. Health experts say tree cover is a key way to do it.Read More…

On a breezy Monday morning on a quiet corner of Queens, 11 leafy new neighbors arrived on a truck, fresh from a nursery in Kansas City.

Elm, red maple and cherry trees — some with pink blossoms — would be planted next to the sidewalks across a few blocks of Cambria Heights, a suburban-style neighborhood of homes with grassy front lawns.Read More…

Trees beautify the city, support wildlife, improve air quality, and provide critical hot-weather protection, especially during those relentless heat waves that have plagued New Yorkers in recent summers.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to greenify the city as part of his administration’s climate and environmental justice agenda. Health experts say tree cover is a key way to do it.Read More…

New York City turns green in the spring as parks and flowers bloom across the five boroughs.

But behind the beauty is an enormous effort to care for the city’s millions of trees. The work has been reshaped by a new plan aimed at expanding and protecting the urban forest.Read More…