Mayor Antsy for Plants at Million Trees Launch

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Accompanied by Bette Midler and “Sesame Street” resident Big Bird, Mayor Bloomberg kicked off his campaign to bring 1 million trees to New York over the next decade by planting a Carolina Silverbell on a street corner in the Bronx yesterday.

The program, Million Trees NYC, will expand the city’s urban forest by 20% and make the air cleaner, raise property values, save energy, and keep hot streets cool on summer days, officials said.

The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation will receive nearly $400 million over the next 10 years to plant 600,000 new trees. To reach the mayor’s goal, the city is relying on private businesses, residents, and other organizations to plant the remaining 400,000. There are 5.2 million trees in New York and, in the past, the parks department has planted about 8,000 each year, adding a total of 118,000 new trees to the city over the last decade. Mr. Bloomberg said that the number of trees the city will plant is the equivalent of 40 times the number of trees in Central Park.

“Trees make us feel better about our neighborhoods,” he said at the ceremony at 165th Street and Teller Avenue in the Morrisania section of the borough, which also featured cast members of the Broadway musical “Wicked.” “They also make us healthier.”

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said the city’s street trees will survive longer if people water the trees outside their homes and protect them with a low guard rail that keeps out dogs and buffers trees from cars backing up into them.


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