Fifty Years in the Canopy: Trees New York Marks a Half-Century of Stewardship
The city’s most enduring urban forestry nonprofit gathered supporters at Festival Cafe NYC to celebrate 50 years of planting, preserving and protecting New York’s trees, and to make the case for the next fifty.
A city measures its age in buildings. It measures its health in trees. On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, at Festival Cafe NYC, an organization that has spent five decades tending to the second of those measures gathered its supporters to mark the anniversary. Environmental advocates, civic leaders and longtime friends of Trees New York filled the room for an evening that celebrated the past while making a fairly direct argument about the future.
Founded in 1976, Trees New York has built a citywide legacy on an unglamorous premise: that the care of street trees belongs to the people who live beside them. Its work runs through education, volunteerism and community participation, taking shape in Citizen Pruner training, youth environmental literacy programs, tree plantings, stewardship initiatives and neighborhood greening projects across all five boroughs.
The anniversary fundraiser paired an open bar and hors d’oeuvres with a retrospective look at the organization’s past, present and future, while a special auction and raffle raised additional funds. Proceeds support the group’s programs and its ongoing effort to strengthen the city’s tree canopy, the work of engaging New Yorkers in caring for the trees, parks, streetscapes, gardens and green spaces that shape daily life without ever quite announcing themselves.
Nelson Villarrubia, Executive Director of Trees New York, framed the milestone in terms of what the organization has taught rather than what it has planted. “For 50 years, Trees New York has helped New Yorkers understand that trees are not just part of the landscape. They are essential infrastructure, community anchors and living symbols of resilience,” he said. “This anniversary is both a celebration of what has been accomplished and a renewed call to action for the next generation of urban forest stewards.”
That phrase, essential infrastructure, does a considerable amount of work. It reframes a street tree from decoration into utility, something the city depends on for public health, climate resilience and quality of life as surely as it depends on pipes and power lines. It also explains the logic behind the organization’s signature program. The Citizen Pruner initiative trains ordinary New Yorkers in street tree care, handing residents the practical skills to maintain the trees on their own blocks. Alongside it, youth environmental education and stewardship programs extend the same principle to the next generation.
The anniversary year arrives just ahead of City of Forest Day, returning Saturday, October 3, 2026. Presented by Forest for All NYC in partnership with organizations across the city, the annual event draws communities, parks groups, environmental advocates and volunteers together for a day devoted to trees, parks, street plantings, community gardens and woodlands. Trees New York will take part alongside its coalition partners, continuing the work of turning public appreciation into public participation.
As the organization enters its next half-century, its central claim remains straightforward: the urban forest belongs to everyone, and its survival depends on residents who treat it that way. Fifty years of work stands behind that idea. The trees now shading blocks across the five boroughs were planted by people who would not live to sit under them, which is the oldest argument for planting anything at all.
About Trees New York
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026, Trees New York, also known as TreesNY, is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit organization. Its mission is to plant, preserve and protect New York City’s urban forest through education, active citizen participation and advocacy.
For more information, please visit www.treesny.org.
