MillionTreesNYC serves as a catalyst for educating city, state and Federal policymakers on legislative, regulatory and funding issues affecting New York City’s urban forest. Through the MillionTreesNYC initiative, NYRP and its coalition partners are advancing city ordinances and state and Federal legislation that promote tree planting and maintenance, landscape restoration and urban forestry.
Recently, as a result of the growing impact of MillionTreesNYC on city life, the New York City Department of Buildings adopted two zoning requirements that further MillionTreesNYC tree-planting goals. The first requires that every new surface parking lot constructed within the five boroughs be planted with trees to reduce the heat emitted from large asphalt and other types of surfacing. The second requires that any developer or builder of a new building must plant new street trees every 25 feet around the structure’s street frontage. MillionTreesNYC is currently working with the New York City Council and Department of Buildings to advance zoning changes that protect existing large-caliper trees located on private property, citywide.
MillionTreesNYC is an enormous endeavor, with significant and broad potential for ecological and social benefits. Increased knowledge derived from this ongoing initiative is providing a vast and valuable forum for researchers, scientists, forestry and other environmental specialists to assess and further promote best practices emerging from on-the-ground decisions and actions, public policy enactment and enforcement, stewardship enterprises, etc., emanating from MillionTreesNYC and other large-scale urban forestry projects.
In early 2009, the U.S. Forest Service, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and NYRP presented its first “MillionTreesNYC, Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecology: Building a Research Agenda” workshop. Researchers, practitioners and policymakers from New York City and beyond came together to collaboratively develop a prospectus for a research agenda to support the management, practice and rationale for MillionTreesNYC. A first step in a larger process to understand and improve New York’s green infrastructure, the three-day symposium included presentations by city officials, U.S. Forest Service scientists and university researchers; site visits to a variety of MillionTreesNYC planting sites; and discussions in 11 topical categories.