NYC Green Maps + Climate Action

Hello and happy Autumn to all our GlobalGiving supporters! 

As the leaves turn golden and drift down to earth, we think of trees. Caring for urban trees, with all their eco and social benefits, is at the root of climate action.

Building on our 2019 campaign for the Lower East Side Tree Canopy, we joined the citywide celebration of City of Forest Day, a new annual NYC event. We co-organized “Remembrance and Protection for Urban Forests” with community gardeners. More about urban trees, stewardship and shared resources is at bit.ly/urbantrees22. Although we have lost far too many mature trees here, over 500 new street trees have been planted in our district since 2019. 

We have found that stewardship is a popular theme at Earth Celebration events, and our director will be the first speaker at their November 9th event. Tune in - we'll be inviting people to help us assess what people value about trees and crowdsource favorites across NYC ! Find more events on facebook.com/greenmap, too. 

We've been taking part in myriad events, including It's My Park Day at Sara Roosevelt Park on October 30th. We're part of the coalition to reactivate a former recreation center there, and we were so glad our new City Councilmember and new Commissioner for Manhattan Parks were there to talk about a new phase of community partnership.  

Globally, we're glad our NYC maps and the Green Map movement are part of Tools for a Warming Planet, created by our long-time colleague, Ms. Ferguson and team. Peruse the catalog at warmingplanet.org This traveling exhibition has been shown this year at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven NL, Ars Electronica in Linz AS, and in the International Symposium on Electronic Arts of Barcelona ES and in the US, Arts Santa Monica!

This has been a great year for progress on the Green Map Platform progress, and there is a constant stream of updates thanks to our developer team at the GISCollective (you can also view their more technical open source updates). Behind the scenes, we’re expanding the Platform to make it easier for everyone to make and share Green Maps. Your support makes all the difference!

We hosted events online and in person this season, including the Platform’s lunchtime learning session created for the Climate Fringe of Scotland. The presentation is now featured in our blog. Let us know if you’d like to create a session like this and involve your part of the world in building capacity, knowledge and networks for community and climate health.

Our best wishes to all as the season changes. Stay healthy and hopeful and love your local trees!