One million new trees will join the urban landscape of New York City by the year 2017 to reduce air pollution, cool temperatures and help improve the city's long term sustainability, under an ambitious City program called PlaNYC. The tree program is one of 127 environmental proposals that Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched in April 2007.
For the next 10 years, the city will plant 23,000 trees each year along city streets, to reach a goal of having a tree in "every single place where it is possible to plant a street tree." The remaining will be planted in parks and public lots, while the private sector will also be encouraged to plant trees on their properties as well.
The Urban Field Station has supported that effort by:
- Analyzing Urban Tree Canopy and Urban Tree Mortality issues to support the City’s 30% canopy cover goal by 2030
- Analyzing Urban Tree Canopy on New York City Housing Authority properties citywide
- Developing a youth tree monitoring program through the Council on the Environment of New York City, with support from FS Civil Rights initiative funding
- Combining the analysis of environmental stewardship geography with 20 years of geospatial land cover data through cutting edge interdisciplinary research via the NSF-funded ULTRA-EX project, entitled “Understanding the Dynamic Connections among Stewardship, Land Cover, and Ecosystem Services in New York City's Urban Forest”.
Research Outputs
- Assessing Urban Forest Effects and Values: New York City's Urban Forest
- Brooklyn's Urban Forest
- A Report on New York City’s Present and Possible Urban Tree Canopy
- Prioritizing preferable locations for increasing urban tree canopy in New York City
- Biological, Social and Urban Design Factors Affecting Young Street Tree Mortality in New York City
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Last Modified: 09/02/2011