Streetscapes and Street TreesNew York City Community Forestry Management Case Study

Jennifer GreenfeldCentral Forestry & Horticulture

New York City Parks & Recreation

Green Infrastructure SymposiumOctober 21, 2009

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62% of acreage of NYC impervious

� 126,729 acres of buildings and other paved surfaces

� 6,375 miles of roadway

38% of acreage of NYC pervious

� 78,095 acres of tree, grass, or soil coverage

� 5.2 million trees

NYC Urban Landscape

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1,651 acres of freshwater wetland

Environment

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1,498 acres of salt marsh

Environment

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1,444 acres of meadow/grassland

Environment

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5,136 acres of forest

Environment

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Environment

Estimated 2 million trees in landscaped parks

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Environment

• 700 Community gardens

• 282 are permanent parkland

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Environment

2 nurseries and 3 greenhouses

Greenbelt Native Plant Center and seedbank

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Environment

2,500 ornamental gardens

Abington Square, Manhattan Clove Lakes Park, Staten Island

Brooklyn Heights Promenade

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2,423 greenstreets

Environment

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592,130 street trees

Environment

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New York City’s Tree Canopy

NYC lost 9,000 acres of vegetative cover between 1984 – 2002

(satellite imagery analysis)

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Relative Area

< 10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

> 50%

Canopy Cover

New York City has 24% canopy cover

� 44,000 acres of land area

� 5.2 million trees

� 50% under Parks jurisdiction

� valued at $5.2 billion in replacement costs

As compared to other U.S. cities:

City Tree Cover (%)

Atlanta, GA 37

Austin, TX 34

Boston, MA 29

Washington, DC 28Seattle, WA 25

New York City, NY 24

Cambridge, MA 20

Baltimore, MD 19

Philadelphia, PA 16

Jersey City, NJ 11

Chicago, IL 11

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Street Tree Inventory

Type of Data Collected

• species• size• condition• growing conditions• infrastructure conflicts

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Street Tree Inventory Results

NYC's Top Ten Street Trees (%)

London planetree 15.3 Littleleaf linden 4.7Norway maple 14.1 Green ash 3.5Callery pear 10.9 Red maple 3.5Honeylocust 8.9 Silver maple 3.2Pin oak 7.5 Ginkgo 2.8

Dead

1%Poor

8%

Good

67%

Excellent

24%

Dead Poor Good Excellent

Number of Street Trees

• 1995 -- 498,470 trees• 2005 -- 592,130 trees (19% increase)

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592,130TOTAL TREES

PROPERTY VALUES

$52 million

STORM WATER RUNOFF

$36 million

ENERGY SAVINGS

$27 million

$122TOTAL BENEFITS

Callery Pear

Honey Locust

Pin Oak

London Planetree

15%

Norway Maple

14%

10%

8%

7.5%

AIR QUALITY

$5.3 million

CO2 REDUCTION

$0.75 million

Street Tree Benefits

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592,130 Street Trees � 27% tree planting sites empty

� space for an additional 220,000 trees

Current Street TreeStocking Levels

Street Tree Distribution

Borough New trees

Bronx 50,000

Brooklyn 70,000

Manhattan 20,000

Queens 55,000

Staten Island 27,000

Total 220,000

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Street Tree Planting: By Request

Street Tree Planting

6,346

9,1928,267 8,200

13,545

15,45316,525

17,593 17,106

10,464 10,258

8,4037,160

8,494

6,754 6,254

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Annual Year

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Health and Economic Factors

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Current Street TreeStocking Levels

Trees for Public Health (TPH)

Morrisania

East Harlem

East New York

Stapleton

Rockaways

Hunts Point

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TPH: Process

Select Select

SitesSites

Set Priorities Set Priorities

with Partnerswith Partners

Data Collection Data Collection

& Synthesis& Synthesis

IdentifyIdentify

Community Community

PartnersPartners

Finalize Finalize

Greening Greening

PlansPlans

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Community Forestry Management Plans

•Tree Survey

•Tree Planting Opportunity Survey

•Analyze Data

•Community Outreach

TPH: Management Plans

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On Earth Day 2007, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve our urban environment….

PlaNYC

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Fully plant NYC’s streets

with 220,000 trees

Build 800 new Greenstreets

Re-landscape and reforest

2,000 acres of parkland

PlaNYC & Greening

10 years and $300 million in capital funds to:

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Street Tree Planting: By Request

Street Tree Planting

6,346

9,1928,267 8,200

13,545

15,45316,525

17,593 17,106

10,464 10,258

8,4037,160

8,494

6,754 6,254

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Annual Year

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Street Tree Planting: Strategic

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Fiscal Year

PlaNYC

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Strategic Planting

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Block Planting

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East Harlem Block Planting

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Walk East Harlem

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Walk East Harlem

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October 9, 2007 Press Launch

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MillionTreesNYC

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MillionTreesNYC

Two years…

…252,170 trees

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Challenges

� Framing the message for community and city decision makers. Quantification of benefits is key to success.

� Developing a sustainable community group to foster local stewardship and move implementation forward.

� Monitoring success. Need local baseline data and monitoring to compare results.

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www.milliontreesnyc.orgwww.nyc.gov/parks