Today, Oct. 3, is City of Forest Day, celebrating New York’s urban forest and the people working to expand and care for it.
Constituents regularly call our office asking how they can get a tree planted in an empty tree pit or replace one that has died. Until recently, we could tell them to request a new street tree through 311. The Parks Department has stopped accepting individual requests as it shifts to its Neighborhood Tree Planting Program.
Council members also had the option of allocating capital funding for additional tree planting in their districts, supplementing Parks’ planting budget. Parks is no longer accepting those allocations for new street trees either.
We all have the same goal: getting more trees in the ground. On Sept. 22, the administration announced that the city planted 18,261 trees in Fiscal Year 2026, the most in a single fiscal year in a decade. We want to build on that progress.
The city’s Urban Forest Plan sets a goal of increasing tree canopy from approximately 23% today to 30% by 2040. Reaching that goal means using every viable planting location and every available source of funding.
Parks’ Neighborhood Tree Planting Program prioritizes communities with the greatest heat vulnerability. We support that approach. But it should not require eliminating other ways of planting additional trees.
Under the new program, Parks plans to move through the city on a nine-year cycle. Most neighborhoods will wait nearly a decade even when there is an empty tree pit and money available to plant a tree.
During this current Council term, we have allocated nearly half a million dollars in capital funding for trees and tree guards on the Upper West Side. Those are additional dollars that can put more trees in the ground without taking resources away from higher-priority communities.
Parks doesn’t have to go it alone. Experienced nonprofit partners can supplement the city’s work, using additional resources to plant trees without diverting Parks funding from higher-priority neighborhoods.
Last year, nearly two dozen Council members — from the South Bronx to Jackson Heights — joined us in writing to the agency, asking it to preserve this option. Parks did not make that change, so on Sept. 24, we introduced legislation to restore it.
Intro. 1073-2026 would not alter Parks’ Neighborhood Tree Planting Program or its focus on communities with the greatest heat vulnerability. It would restore requests from Council members and the public for additional street trees. If a location is feasible and funding is available, Parks would have one year to plant the tree.
That timeline matters. Historically, even after our office allocated capital funding for a tree, planting could take about three years. Under the new neighborhood-based system, communities could wait even longer. If we have a viable location and money for a tree, there is no reason to leave the pit empty for years.
Planting is only one part of maintaining a healthy urban forest. Existing trees need pruning, watering, and protection so they can mature and contribute to the canopy. New Yorkers want to be part of that work. Our office partners with Trees New York, Big ReUse, Adamah, Love Your Street Tree Day, and The Hort on tree care and education.
If our collective goal is to expand New York City’s tree canopy, we must use every available dollar and every viable planting opportunity to get more trees in the ground sooner.
Brewer is a councilwoman from the Upper West Side. Hornig is her legislative and budget director.