Introduction
Summers in New York City can feel brutal, with pavement and concrete trapping heat long after the sun goes down. Between 2007 and 2015, the city took an ambitious step to fight back against rising urban temperatures: it launched MillionTreesNYC, a campaign to plant one million new trees across all five boroughs. What started as a bold, decade-long goal was completed two years early, transforming neighborhoods, cutting pollution, and giving millions of New Yorkers a cooler, greener city to call home.
What Was MillionTreesNYC?
MillionTreesNYC was announced in October 2007 by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actress and environmental advocate Bette Midler, and the U.S. Forest Service. It was built as a public-private partnership between the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and Midler’s nonprofit, the New York Restoration Project (NYRP).
The initiative formed a core part of PlaNYC, the city’s broader sustainability blueprint, and set an audacious goal: plant and care for one million trees on streets, in parks, in schoolyards, and on private land throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
The Numbers Behind the Campaign
- Budget: Roughly $400 million invested over the life of the program
- Timeline: Launched in 2007, originally targeted for completion by 2017
- Actual completion: November 2015 — two years ahead of schedule
- Trees planted: Over one million, including the symbolic 1,017,634th tree, an American linden planted in the Bronx’s Joyce Kilmer Park
- Volunteers involved: More than 50,000 New Yorkers took part in plantings
- Canopy growth: The city’s urban tree canopy expanded by approximately 20%
- Partner-led plantings: NYRP alone helped plant around 250,000 of the trees, often in public housing developments, schoolyards, and near health centers and houses of worship
Why New York City Needed More Trees
Dense cities like New York suffer from what scientists call the urban heat island effect, where concrete, asphalt, and buildings absorb and radiate heat, pushing city temperatures several degrees higher than surrounding suburban or rural areas. Trees directly counter this by:
- Providing shade that cools sidewalks and buildings
- Releasing moisture that lowers surrounding air temperature
- Filtering airborne pollutants and improving air quality
- Absorbing stormwater runoff, easing pressure on the sewer system
- Creating habitats for urban wildlife
Beyond the environmental case, the campaign deliberately prioritized lower-income neighborhoods that historically had little tree cover, aiming to spread these benefits more equitably across the city rather than concentrating greenery in already-wealthy areas.
The Impact Since 2015
Researchers studying MillionTreesNYC have linked the expanded canopy to measurable public health benefits, including improvements in air quality and even infant health outcomes in the years following planting. The program didn’t stop at its one-millionth tree either — NYC Parks has continued planting and maintaining trees citywide as part of its ongoing urban forestry efforts.
Key Takeaways
- MillionTreesNYC was one of the largest and best-funded urban tree-planting programs in U.S. history.
- It combined public funding with private philanthropy and tens of thousands of volunteer hours.
- The campaign reached its goal two years ahead of schedule, in November 2015.
- It expanded NYC’s tree canopy by roughly 20%, helping cool streets and improve air quality across all five boroughs.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did MillionTreesNYC start and end? It was announced in October 2007 and reached its goal of one million trees planted in November 2015.
How much did the MillionTreesNYC campaign cost? The program cost approximately $400 million.
Who led the MillionTreesNYC initiative? It was a public-private partnership between the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project.
Did the campaign meet its goal? Yes — and ahead of schedule. The original target was 2017, but the millionth tree was planted in 2015.
Sources: NYC Parks Department, NYC Mayor’s Office press releases, and peer-reviewed research on the MillionTreesNYC program.