New York spent 8 years planting one million trees. Now the city is aiming for 30% tree cover by 2040 to transform its fight against rising heat

For decades, New York has been associated with skyscrapers, traffic and tightly packed neighbourhoods rather than large-scale environmental restoration. Yet across the city's streets, parks and residential areas, an enormous change has been taking place almost unnoticed. Trees planted years ago are now reaching maturity, casting wider shade over pavements, cooling busy roads and gradually altering the character of many communities. As hotter summers become more common, the long-term value of those earlier planting efforts is becoming easier to measure.New York's attention has now shifted from reaching a numerical milestone to expanding tree cover across the city in a more balanced way. As reported by NYC Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, officials have set a goal of increasing overall canopy coverage to roughly 30% by 2040, while continuing to prioritise neighbourhoods that experience the greatest exposure to extreme heat.How New York planted one million trees to reshape its urban landscapeIn 2007, New York City launched MillionTreesNYC with a target that sounded unusually large even by the city's standards: planting one million trees across the five boroughs. ...