Around 22% of New York City is covered by trees right now. The City Council wants to increase that to 30%.<\/p>\n
At a Council Committee on Parks and Recreation hearing Tuesday, members discussed how to protect the more than 50% of city trees managed by the Parks Department, in addition to planting new ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe critical need of properly growing and maintaining the city\u2019s tree stock is obvious,\u201d committee Chair Shekar Krishnan said. \u201cIn short, our trees are connected intimately to our climate, to our public health and, yes, to our mental health, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council Member Erik Bottcher is sponsoring a bill<\/a> that would require the department to create an Urban Forestry Master Plan \u201cthat identifies strategies and sets goals to protect, care for and expand the city\u2019s urban forest canopy\u201d by July 31, 2024.<\/p>\n Some forms of tree care discussed were proactive pruning<\/a> and installing more tree guards.<\/p>\n Pruning is the process of removing hanging branches that could cause harm if they fell. Before a tree can be pruned, an inspection from a city Parks forestry professional must be completed to assign the tree a risk ranking. The most extreme-risk trees are handled by the department\u2019s in-house foresters. <\/p>\n Lower risk and proactive prunings are done by contracted vendors. By proactively pruning trees, they\u2019re kept healthier for longer.<\/p>\n Tree guards are steel gates that are installed around the trunk or bed of a tree to keep people from stepping on them and dogs from using their roots as a toilet. External wounds on trunks and branches can lead to internal infections that spell death for the plant.<\/p>\n Keeping the current population healthy and cared for will contribute to the Council\u2019s 30% canopy goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Planting new trees was, of course, also a large part of the discussion, with the department on track to plant 2,000 trees more than the 13,000 that were planted last year.<\/a><\/p>\n