Go Figure, Some New Yorkers Have It in for the Trees

By the end of this fall, 300,000 trees will have been planted in New York City. The initiative, MillionTreesNYC, is lead by Mayor Bloomberg (right).

MillionTreesNYC is a citywide, public-private initiative with an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the city's five boroughs by 2017. The program began in 2007. Over the last two years, more than 220,000 trees have been planted around the city, and by the end of this fall, the number will be about 300,000. The program is funded by the city and by the New York Restoration Project www.nyrp.org, a nonprofit founded by actress Bette Midler. NYRP's motto is ''Greening New York City one block at a time.''

The tree planting program is going well, for the most part, although the city cut funding for the tree program from $400 million to $280 million, a reflection of the economic times.

While MillionTreesNYC is a popular program and some areas are on a three-year waiting list to get trees, not every New York City resident embraces this effort. There have been at least four ''attacks'' on trees, including the massive uprooting of 60 trees in one park only two months after they were planted on Earth Day. One doesn't want to give much attention or importance to such malicious vandalism, after all, there are a certain percentage of ''nuts'' in any given population. That a NYC man recently hacked to death a psychotherapist with a meat cleaver is no reflection on the population at large.

There have been reports explaining why some NYC residents don't get all tingly over MillionTreesNYC. The contractors who install the trees are supposed to water the trees for the first two years. The city is responsible for pruning trees, but residents are expected to pick up the leaves and berries that fall to the grown. Some complain the city doesn't properly care for the trees, that tree roots are damaging sidewalks; some residents object to a new tree in front of their home, or the blocking of their view. And some feel the city dollars could be better spent on other city services.

NYC Tree Facts:

- Number of trees in New York City: 5.2 million
- Number of trees on New York City streets: 592,130
- Acres of urban tree canopy: 44,509 acres
- Percent of land covered in trees: 24%
- Replacement value of total tree population: $5.2 billion
- Total annual benefits from street trees: $122 million ($209 per tree)
- Number of tree species: 168