Every ten years, NYC Parks does a survey of all the trees under their management in the entire city. Because I moved here in 2025, I arrived at the perfect time to get involved. I attended a training event in Bryant Park where I learned how to identify tree species and input the relevant tree health data into ArcGIS and then I was invited to survey trees on my own in any of the parks in the city. Here’s a map of all the parks I’ve surveyed trees in so far:
For each tree, I measured its circumference, identified the species, and input a few health observations such as insect damage or excessive litter. I’ve surveyed a wide variety of trees from new plantings in Hunter’s Point to huge osage orange trees in Marcus Garvey Memorial Park. I also explored a lot of different parks that I hadn’t seen before.
In total, I’ve surveyed about 500 trees so far. My top three species are london plane, callery pear, and japanese zelkova, which is similar to the overall top species planted in the parks. It was sad to see that every plane tree I surveyed was struggling with the heat but at least there were other species that fared better.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved, the NYC Parks page is here.