NYC Parks

The Parks Department works steadily to plant 220,000 new street trees and 2,000 parkland acres of forest by 2017.

NYC Parks leaf

The Parks Department is the historic caretaker of New York City’s public trees, and in partnership with the New York Restoration Project is leading the MillionTreesNYC initiative - one part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC to make our City greener and more sustainable by the year 2030. With 1,700 parks, playgrounds, and recreation facilities, and a total of 29,000 acres of parkland under its care, the Parks Department is responsible for greening and maintaining the City’s public open spaces.

Street Tree Planting

The City of New York has calculated that there is room for an additional 220,000 curbside trees in addition to the nearly 600,000 that existed prior to Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030 initiative. The trees will get planted in the following ways:

Individual requests - Individuals may request trees to be planted in front of their homes and office buildings.

Block planting - The Parks Department will target blocks with few or no trees, planting on both sides of the street. View the block planting progress in each Borough with our latest maps, below!

Automatic tree replacement - The Parks Department will automatically replace a tree after removal of a dead tree and/or stump.

Greenstreets -In addition, the Parks Department will identify and plant 80 new Greenstreets - unique garden areas set in median strips and traffic triangles filled with trees, flowering shrubs, and perennials - per year.

Following are detailed accounts of both the Parks Department's tree procurement process and street tree planting procedure.

Attend a Tree Planting

 Map of Target Neighborhoods  Morrisania Hunts Point East Harlem East New York Far Rockaways Stapleton

The Parks Department has established six target neighborhoods that have been identified as neighborhoods of greatest need for trees. The six neighborhoods—referred to as Trees for Public Health neighborhoods (TPH)—were selected because they have fewer than average street trees and higher than average rates of asthma among young people. It is believed that additional trees in these neighborhoods will reduce the pollutants that trigger respiratory disorders, and contribute to healthier living standards.

MillionTreesNYC accomplishes block street tree planting on streets with low tree canopy cover. When a block planting is completed, all available and appropriate locations for street tree installation along sidewalks on this stretch of the public right-of-way have been planted. The status of appropriate planting locations may be revised over time due to the changing nature of city streets.

Reforestation

Nearly 40 percent of New York City’s parkland - approximately 11,000 acres - is still natural. This includes rocky shorelines and beaches, wetlands, meadows, and forests, which currently account for 6,000 acres of the total parkland. PlaNYC will provide funding to plant an additional 2,000 parkland acres of forest by 2017.