With all the skyscrapers, super tall apartment buildings and asphalt roads built in between to reach them, one would think the concrete jungle of New York City would have no room for the ambitious goal of planting one million trees.
MillionTreesNYC is a citywide initiative program aimed at planting one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. According to MillionTreesNYC, they believe New York City can increase its urban forest – street trees, park trees and trees on public and private land by 20% not only for the scenery but for the benefits that come from an increased amount of trees such as cleaning up the air from pollutants and bring shade and cool air during the hot summer days.
The plan is to plant 60% of trees in parks and other public areas while the remaining 40% will come from private organizations, homeowners and community organizations. That breaks down to an estimated 220,000 park/street trees, 380,000 parks (reforestation), other agencies and zoning regulations and 400,000 private partners.
The Parks Department has established six neighborhoods that need trees the most dubbing them Trees for Public Health (TPH) because they have fewer than average trees and higher than average rates of asthma among young people. The six Trees for Public Health Neighborhoods include Hunts Point and Morrisania of the Bronx, East New York of Brooklyn, East Harlem of Manhattan, Rockaways of Queens and Stapleton of Staten Island.
Besides the neighborhoods in need, the Parks Department also plans on planting some of the trees through individual requests, block planting, automatic tree replacement and greenstreets — which are garden areas in median strips and traffic triangles filled with trees and flowers.
For the community based tree planting, New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and non-profit partners will plant trees on public yards such as schoolyards, public housing campuses, libraries, community health centers, and senior centers. The funding for these trees will come from private donations.
NYRP will also set specific tree planting goals with developers by meeting with commercial and residential developers, architects and landscape designers. New regulations have also been proposed that require the planting trees in new developments, major enlargements or conversions throughout all residential and commercial areas within the city.
Public education campaigns will be introduced by the Parks Department and NYRP to homeowners highlighting economic and health benefits associated with planting trees. There will be tree planting workshops, community-based stewardship networks, chances to participate in volunteer tree planting days and registering their newly planted trees online.
If you wish to get involved in MillionTreesNYC plan, there are many ways. To have a tree planted on a street, you can request a street tree or tree planting permit from the NYC Parks Department, plant a tree in your own yard or community, volunteer to participate in a neighborhood tree planting or stewardship day, become part of the Stewardship Corps and adopt a tree in your neighborhood, learn how to properly plant, water, mulch and prune trees or make a donation to support tree planting.
For tips on how to get your child involved, click here.
If you want to learn how to plant a tree yourself click here.
Information from http://www.milliontreesnyc.org
photos from gothamist.com, washingtonsquarepark.wordpress.com and gallery.hd.org.
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