Comptroller Levine Issues Report on Funding and Managing NYC’s Urban Forest and Tree Canopy
New Report Finds Expansion of Tree Canopies Have Proven Financial and Environmental Benefits
New York, NY — Comptroller Mark Levine today released New York City’s Living Infrastructure, a report that outlines the financial, environmental, health and resiliency benefits of a robust urban tree canopy, and strategies to better maintain, grow and fund it.
“New York City’s 7 million trees are a vital component of our infrastructure across the five boroughs, and it’s essential we treat them as such,” said New York City Comptroller Mark Levine. “Making a long-term investment in their care drives down energy costs, asthma rates, and damage to our infrastructure. New York City can transform the concrete jungle into an urban forest through creative, dedicated efforts.”
As part of a series of announcements during the week of Earth Day, Comptroller Levine released a new report, New York City’s Living Infrastructure: Funding and Managing NYC’s Urban Forest and Tree Canopy. The report examined the impact of New York City’s tree population – notably canopies that create a “roof” of shade over asphalt and concrete, mitigating extreme heat. Tree canopies provide the City an estimated $120.6 million in benefits annually because they reduce cooling costs, remove 1,100 tons of air pollutants, and absorb more than 1 billion gallons of storm water. The report also highlights the public health risks associated with inequitable canopy distribution, as neighborhoods with lower coverage correlate strongly with higher levels of youth asthma emergency department visits.
The report also found:
- Existing Trees Drive Canopy Growth. Shadier streets across the five boroughs have largely been driven by existing trees, which have matured over years and provide the bulk of the City’s shade, cooling, and climate benefits. Yet limited protections exist for those trees, including the estimated 35% located on private properties.
- Maintenance and Workforce Constraints. Staffing shortages in the NYC Parks Department, as well as temporary staff contracts, have led to backlogs of pruning, inspections, plantings, and routine care. While the Department has efficiently managed hundreds of thousands of damaged tree requests in the last several years, responding within days, the backlog of various requests makes planting new trees more difficult.
- Fragmented Coordination. New York City’s urban forest currently lacks a centralized management framework, with agencies sharing planning responsibility, particularly in the streetscape. Tree planting is often unaccounted for in early-stage capital planning and involves complex and extended permitting processes.
- Funding Gaps and Structural Constraints. While tree planting has been funded through capital budget initiatives, maintenance is an operational cost that has not kept up pace. Compounding the issue is the lack of a dedicated funding stream specifically for tree maintenance.
- Develop Sustainable and Equitable Funding Models. New York City should achieve and baseline 1% for Parks, ensuring the Parks Department is adequately funded to meet the needs of New Yorkers and manage our urban forest. Additionally, the City can create a dedicated funding source for ongoing tree care by expanding and streamlining the process to open Parks concessions, such as cafes and recreational rentals. This would ensure concession fees serve as dedicated revenue for the Parks Department to do maintenance, as proposed by the Center for an Urban Future.
- Establish Maintenance as a Core Budget Priority. Baseline operating support for the Parks Department to align funding with the full life cycle costs for New York’s urban forest is key.
- Integrate Urban Heat into Canopy Planning. Heat vulnerability and limited canopy should guide planting and maintenance, with neighborhoods prone to the greatest climate risks and heat vulnerability receiving priority.
- Strengthen Protections for Existing Trees. The City can explore requirements to replace or mitigate trees removed during development, as well as strengthen protections and/or create incentives for those located on private land.
- Create a Coordinated Government Framework. A unified effort to standardize data collection, weave canopy goals into capital planning, and streamline the permitting process would help better identify what parts of the city should be prioritized for tree planning and maintenance.
- Expand Workforce Development in Urban Forestry and Horticulture. New York City can streamline the process to fill outstanding vacancies as well as expand so-called bridge programs and vocational partnerships. These actions will give the City the specialized workforce it demands to tend to these vital pieces of infrastructure.
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