New York Municipal Forest Resource Analysis

I stumble upon an very informative report while searching for something unrelated to the reservoir. This is from the cover of the report:

City of New York, New York Municipal Forest Resource Analysis

Technical report to:
Fiona Watt, Chief Forestry and Horticulture
Department of Parks & Recreation
New York City, New York

By Paula J. Peper, E. Gregory McPherson, James R. Simpson, Shelley L. Gardner, Kelaine E. Vargas, Qingfu Xiao

March 2007
USDA Forest Service, Center for Urban Forest Research

It is a report that I assume the commissioner of parks would have read, but what do I know. In the introduction is the following:

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (hereafter “Parks”) actively manages over 592,000 street trees, and has planted over 120,000 new trees over the past 10 years. The city believes that the public’s investment in stewardship of the urban forest produces benefits that far outweigh the costs to the community. Investing in New York City’s green infrastructure makes sense economically, environmentally, and socially.

Research indicates that healthy city trees can mitigate impacts associated with urban environs: polluted stormwater runoff, poor air quality, high requirements for energy for heating and cooling buildings, and heat islands. Healthy public trees increase real estate values, provide neighborhood residents with a sense of place, and foster psychological, social, and physical health. Street and park trees are associated with other intangibles, too, such as increasing community attractiveness for tourism and business and providing wildlife habitat and corridors. The urban forest makes New York City a more enjoyable place to visit, live, work and play, while mitigating the city’s environmental impactment fees.

The Municipal Forest Resource Analysis is available in its entirety as a PDF file.

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