Opinion: Flip the Script With NYC's New Urban Forest Plan

""It is far too difficult to get a street tree planted in the five boroughs. The Urban Forest Plan must reverse this paradigm; if the goal of growing the city's tree canopy to 30 percent coverage is as worthy as we say it is, let's pull out the stops." As New York City develops its new Urban Forest Plan, I couldn't be more excited. Given the urban heat island effect, cloudburst flood events, air pollution, and climate change, we need trees more than ever."

"The city's new Urban Forest Plan needs to reduce hurdles to getting new trees in the ground - and it needs to let everyday New Yorkers help in real ways to make that happen, even if it means city agencies accepting more informality and imperfection than usual. The city should not prioritize jackhammering new tree pits into sidewalks given the number of existing open tree pits; focus on the extant low hanging fruit first. The city should conduct a lightning survey of all existing open street tree beds for actual underground pipes or cables (a typical Digger's Hotline review, not the inscrutable "conflicts with surrounding infrastructure" analysis used in the city's now-defunct 311 request-a-street-tree option). The city should eliminate its tree planting permit requirements (financial and paperwork). The city should publish a map showing all of the eligible tree pits open for planting."

The Urban Forest Plan should prioritize planting many more street trees across the five boroughs to expand canopy toward 30 percent coverage. The Plan must remove administrative and financial hurdles and enable everyday New Yorkers to help plant and maintain trees, even if that requires accepting more informality and imperfection from city agencies. The city should use existing open tree pits first, run a rapid Digger's Hotline-style survey to identify underground conflicts, eliminate planting permit requirements, and publish a map of eligible tree pits to accelerate community-driven planting and climate resilience.

Read at City Limits