Oak trees with leaves like outstretched hands and thick, stately trunks reduce the effects of extreme heat around New York City’s five boroughs by shading sidewalks and sucking up planet-warming carbon.Read More…

Maybe your favorite tree is a stately pin oak or a London plane tree that greets you every time you step outside, or there’s a lush row of American elm trees you walk slightly out of your way to enjoy. The city’s more than 5.7 million trees beautify blocks, boost property values and play an increasingly important role in addressing climate change by cleaning the air, cooling streets and buildings, sopping up flood waters and capturing planet-warming carbon. And trees are an investment with staying power; the city’s oldest planted tree is supposedly an enormous tulip tree in Alley Park Pond in Queens that was a sapling more than 350 years ago.Read More…

The metropolitan region has experienced more extreme heat this summer than usual, and climate experts say it’ll only get worse. But trees — or nature’s air conditioning — can help keep us cool.Read More…

Good planning takes time and resources to be successful. City Hall and agency leadership must get to work to create an Urban Forest Plan that advances the goal of a 30% tree canopy by 2035, and does so equitably.

We stand ready and willing to work with city agencies to get it done.Read More…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ pledge to support urban forests and our city’s open spaces doesn’t square with his recent budget proposals.Read More…

My local Council member and Parks Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan said it best: “We need to make sure that every New Yorker can step outside their front door and have access to a well maintained and high-quality park. That’s not a luxury, that is not a privilege, that is a right.”Read More…

The city passed a bill in October to increase its canopy from 22-30%. To ensure viability, the city council also called for the creation of a comprehensive action plan to be completed by July 2025.Read More…

In a city with little private green space, tree beds on public streets have become coveted territory. But who gets to decide how they’re used?Read More…

New York City has roughly one tree for every resident. That’s a good thing, because trees are necessities, given the reality of catastrophic climate change and the simple delights that make urban life livable.Read More…

New York City is poised to get a lot more trees. Last month, the city council passed a measure calling for 30% canopy cover by 2035, up from its current cover of 22%; a recent tree census found there’s enough room in the city to plant an additional 250,000 new trees.Read More…