Park Joins In NYC “Million Trees” Initiative

How do you plant a million trees? It’s simple: One tree at a time. And it doesn’t hurt to have hundreds of volunteer New Yorkers helping out either.

A thousand of those trees were planted in the park’s Jamaica Bay Unit on April 25th as part of the MillionTreesNYC initiative – an effort go “green-up” the city.

The park teamed up with New York City Parks and Recreation’s Natural Resource Group (NRG) and the MillionsTreesNYC initiative to become part of this extraordinary effort. MillionTreesNYC is a citywide, public-private program with an ambitious goal – to plant and care for one million new trees across the city's five boroughs over the next decade.

By planting a million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest – the city’s most valuable environmental asset, made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land – by 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees.

Approximately 30 areas across five New York boroughs were chosen as planting sites for this year’s event.

But not all the work was accomplished on April 25th. Prior to the big day, NPS and NRG staff, along with many volunteers, completed site preparation and removed large numbers of invasive plants, such as mutliflora rose and Japanese honeysuckle.

“Planting these trees creates not only great habitat for the animals and plants of the area, but it also brings new life to the campground,” said ranger Justin Monetti. “That means that the kids who helped plant these trees today will be able to visit in the years to come to monitor the progress and hopefully bring their kids back."

"This project was a perfect fit for Gateway," said natural resources chief Doug Adamo. "The city wanted to plant 60% of the trees in park open spaces and we had just the spot they needed."

Gateway identified ten sites within the Jamaica Bay Unit of the park where native trees could be planted in coordination with the program over the next decade. Ecology Village was chosen as this year’s pilot site for park plantings. Ecology Village is used for outdoor education classes and is situated near the historic Floyd Bennett Airfield. The project will assist in the restoration of native habitat and provide for the future use of the area for outdoor classrooms.

For more information about the MillionTreeNYC and other projects, click on the link below. For information about the NPS role in this joint effort,  contact Doug Adamo at (718) 354-4510 or Justin Monetti at (718) 338-4306.