New York City launches urban forest plan

New York City has unveiled its Urban Forest Plan, the city’s first comprehensive framework for protecting existing canopy, expanding tree planting, and cultivating long-term stewardship across public and private land.

Spearheaded by the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) in collaboration with NYC Parks and a broad coalition of public and civic partners, the plan establishes a coordinated approach to increasing New York City’s tree canopy coverage.

Long-standing inequities

The goal is to boost coverage from 23.4 per cent to 30 per cent by 2040, while addressing long standing inequities in access. At current growth rates, MOCEJ reports it would likely not reach that threshold until 2055 or later.

While the city’s canopy has grown in recent years, it remains unevenly distributed. As of 2021, the latest citywide canopy data shows that while tree canopy covers 23.4 per cent of the city, Environmental Justice Areas have 19 per cent canopy overall, compared with 26 per cent in non-EJ areas.

The Urban Forest Plan centres equity as a core objective, directing resources and strategies toward neighbourhoods most affected by heat, environmental burdens, and historic disinvestment to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to a healthier, more resilient urban environment.

NYC-based firm WXY Architecture + Urban Design (WXY) led planning, research, design, and community and inter-agency engagement for the plan, synthesising analysis, spatial data, and public input into a coherent, actionable framework that approaches the urban forest as essential infrastructure.

“This plan reflects years of dedicated work by city agencies, conservation partners, and the community groups and stewards who have been expanding and caring for the canopy long before there was a citywide plan for it”

“The urban forest canopy is one of the few public systems no single agency can build alone,” said Claire Weisz, founding principal, WXY. “This plan is the first to treat it that way, creating a shared goal and unified framework that reaches across the city, from public agencies to private landowners.

“Growing the canopy over the coming years will ask something of every neighbourhood, property owner, and agency, bringing everyone together in collective action.”

New York City’s urban forest includes nearly seven million trees across streets, parks, forested natural areas, schoolyards, campuses, public housing, cemeteries, and private property, along with the soils, ecosystems, and communities that sustain them. This connected ecological system is critical infrastructure that cools neighbourhoods, improves air quality, absorbs stormwater, supports biodiversity, and improves public health – both  mental and physical.