Would be nice to see a tree planting program like this in the City of Yerevan…or even Watertown

(Photo by Jason Sohigian, Watertown, MA)

New York City has kicked off a plan to plant a million trees throughout the streets, parks, and private open spaces over the next 10 years. The program is part of a plan to guide growth in an environmentally sustainable way over the next few decades, according to the Oct. 10 article "Bid for a Million Trees Starts With One in Bronx.”

The Mayor’s focus on increasing the city’s canopy cover--a measure of the physical space shaded by trees--will help reduce carbon dioxide and lower energy use by cooling the city. New York’s 5.2 million trees, nearly 600,000 of them on the streets, cover about 24 percent of the city’s land mass, and officials aim to increase that beyond the national average of 27 percent.

The Mayor is proposing that the parks department spend $400 million to plant 600,000 trees over the next decade, about 220,000 along streets and 380,000 in other city property like parks. In addition, proposed zoning regulations would require street trees for most new development, including major expansions or some changes of use of existing properties, writes Diane Cardwell in the New York Times.