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Starting April 15 through May, the New York Restoration Project—a local non-profit that plants trees, renovates gardens and takes care of green spaces around town—is giving out 3,500 free trees to New Yorkers across all five boroughs.
Just in time for Earth Month, the popular and impressive event has been happening regularly since 2010, handing out a variety of native tree species, including American Persimmon, American Plum, Black Cherry, Eastern Redbud, Elderberry, Flowering Dogwood, Highbush Blueberry, Sweetbay Magnolia, Sycamore, Willow Oak, Winged Sumac and Witchhazel, among many others. You can browse through the full list of trees on offer right here.
In addition to providing city dwellers with the sort of greenery that they crave while living in a town of concrete, trees carry out a variety of other important functions within New York's environmental resilience scene, including creating wildlife habitat, improving air quality, reducing temperatures and mitigating storm water run-off. It's obviously important we take good care of them.
“This beloved program continues to spread the undeniable benefits of our urban tree canopy to the neighborhoods that need them most.” said New York Restoration Project executive director Lynn Bodnar Kelly in an official statement. “We must get more trees in the ground in New York City if we are to truly confront the climate crisis.”
How to get a free tree in NYC
To get your hands on one of the 3,500 free trees that will be given out starting next month, you'll have to register in advance on this website, where you'll also get to browse through the current list of distribution dates, times and locations.