NYC officials preview urban forest plan to reach 30% canopy, stress preserving mature trees

Chair Ty Hankerson opened the Committee on Parks and Recreation hearing by framing trees as critical living infrastructure, and he said the committee would examine how the city can ensure trees "are properly cared for so they can thrive in the near and long term." Commissioner Trisha Shimamura testified that Parks is responsible for roughly half of the city's canopy (about 23,000 acres) and that the citywide canopy was approximately 23.4% as of the most recent survey periods. She told the committee the agency will prioritize street trees and landscape park trees for the purposes of the hearing and described Parks' many maintenance functions, including a block-by-block pruning cycle, contracting with vendors, use of nonprofit partners and a Park Inspection Program.

Luis Young, the mayor's chief climate officer, said the administration's urban forest plan (to be released this spring) frames work in three pillars: planting more trees with priority for heat-vulnerable communities, preserving and maturing existing trees (which the city's analysis indicates will deliver the majority of canopy growth), and strengthening New Yorkers' connections to the urban forest. Young told the committee the plan's analysis shows that roughly 90% of expected canopy growth will come from the maturation of existing trees rather than newly planted saplings.

Committee members pressed Parks for timing and capacity details. Parks said the plan will lay out a roadmap to reach 30% canopy; staff described a nine-year neighborhood planting strategy to assess and plant every plantable street location citywide and said they expect targeted completion of plantings in Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) levels 4 and 5 neighborhoods by the end of 2027. Parks stated the agency planted more than 9,500 trees in the last planting season and pointed to recent shifts to data-driven, concentrated neighborhood plantings rather than request-based planting.

Parks and MOCJ both emphasized that preserving and allowing existing trees to mature is essential to reaching the 30% goal, and officials said the urban forest plan will include measurable steps and new technology (LiDAR surveys and other tools) to track canopy change on a multi-year cycle. Several advocates who testified later urged the council to baseline funding for forest implementation and to enlarge the Parks workforce so the plan can be executed without defaulting to emergency triage during storms.