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Urban Trees for Sustainable Cities

Given that over 50% of the global population lives in cities, addressing urban issues is critical to Cornell's ability to foster regional, national, and global sustainability.

New York State, with an urban population of 80%, exemplifies the common paradox wherein cities have extreme environmental footprints extending well beyond their boundaries, yet often are leaders in proposing large-scale sustainability initiatives. For example, Mayor Bloomberg's MillionTreesNYC initiative is the largest of a growing number of urban tree planting efforts in the US, and has the potential to serve as a model for how to engage citizens in sustainability efforts with both social and ecological outcomes.

The Cornell Urban Trees for Sustainable Cities workshop will bring together urban forestry and sustainability experts from Cornell, Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC, the US Forest Service, NYC Parks and Recreation, NY Restoration Project, Trees New York, the Environmental Defense Fund, and UNESCO-NYC to define a research agenda and methodology for understanding the interaction of social and ecological factors in determining the outcomes of urban tree planting in NYC. The workshop is the first step in a larger Cornell Community Forestry initiative, the goal of which is to create an integrated social-ecological systems research and education program that leads to better understanding and practice related to urban tree planting and related urban sustainability efforts.

This workshop will be held in early 2009 in NYC. Funding is provided by the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future Academic Venture Fund.

Urban Trees for Sustainable Cities full proposal (PDF).