MillionTreesNYC — One Million Trees Planted 2007–2015, With Uneven Survival and Contested Canopy Gains

MillionTreesNYC was launched under PlaNYC (Mayor Bloomberg's 2007 sustainability plan). NYC Parks planted about 70% of the trees in parks and on streets; the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) planted the remainder on public and private property. Next City reported the millionth tree went in around November 2015, two years ahead of schedule, with over 220,000 new street trees and about 700 acres of forest restored (roughly 20,000 saplings per season). The article also reports a 20% increase in urban canopy; this is the programme's own framing and was not independently verified here.
Evidence on outcomes is mixed. A WNYC analysis of the Spring 2011 street-tree cohort (the only one with complete data) found about 12.1% of trees had died, with clusters of higher mortality in some neighbourhoods; contractors must replace street trees that die within two years. A 2025 conference study of ten experimental forest plots planted in 2009 found survivorship of 13–54% after ten years, negatively correlated with invasive species cover.
No programme cost was stated in the sources reviewed. The case is a useful reference for large planting-target governance and a caution that planting counts are not canopy or survival outcomes.

Read the full analysis: https://project.wnyc.org/dead-trees