The MillionTreesNYC program, a partnership between the nonprofit New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, has reached its goal of planting one million trees throughout the five boroughs. Founded in 1995 by entertainer Bette Midler, NYRP operates with a mission to improve open spaces within underserved communities. In 2007, Midler was standing with then-mayor Michael Bloomberg along the Harlem River, celebrating NYRP’s planting of 600 cherry and crabapple trees, when she exclaimed, “Why should we stop here? We should plant one million!”
And so they did. In just eight short years, NYRP and the Parks Department planted one million trees in every corner of the city. While other cities have undertaken similar initiatives, New York is the first to actually achieve this goal. Codified in 2007’s PlaNYC, MillionTreesNYC tasked the Parks Department with 750,000 new plantings and NYRP with 250,000. Where the Parks Department lacked jurisdiction—such as in private yards, churches, cemeteries, and housing projects—NYRP filled the gap. Planting as many as 30,000 trees in a single day, the program ranged from vast reforestation efforts to providing single trees to schoolyards and private outdoor spaces.
The program operated intelligently, using public health data to target neighborhoods where trees would make the most significant impact—areas with lower mean income, an unhealthy population, or simply a low percentage of canopy cover as measured by satellite imagery. Between 2007 and 2011, the program planted more than 10,000 trees in East Harlem alone.
When asked what unanticipated setbacks were encountered during the program, NYRP executive director Deborah Marton drew a blank: The program finished two years ahead of schedule. She cited a trio of conditions that made the program successful: access to planting in private spaces, a mixture of public and private funding, and committed leadership from not one but two mayoral administrations.
Marton says more trees are in the works: Right now NYRP is working on planting 1,200 of them in Mott Haven, a neighborhood in the South Bronx. Though there hasn't been an updated satellite study this year, it's likely New York City is still below recommended canopy cover, which is 25 percent to 30 percent, but every tree counts. The benefits of a strong tree population are myriad: cleaner air, healthier citizens, and even lower crime rates.
