ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥

Bio­di­ver­si­ty isn’t the only impor­tant thing to con­sid­er when main­tain­ing a healthy tree canopy; the age diver­si­ty of the Island’s tree pop­u­la­tion is also impor­tant. Mature trees pro­vide more habi­tat and shade, but are also riski­er giv­en their greater bulk and sur­face area to catch wind­storms. The below chart rep­re­sents the rel­a­tive age of Gov­er­nors Island’s trees to sus­tain a healthy forest.

As you can see, Gov­er­nors Island’s tree canopy con­tains near­ly dou­ble the amount of rec­om­mend­ed young trees — this is large­ly due to all of the trees plant­ed with­in the last five years in the Island’s award-win­ning park space. With prop­er care and time, these young trees should devel­op into estab­lished ones as soon as 2024, and this new urban for­est will become more robust and self-sufficient. 

Cur­rent­ly, only about 91 acres of Gov­er­nors Island’s 172 acres are con­sid­ered shad­ed, and the vast major­i­ty of that is in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict under those 422 Lon­don Plane Trees. As the young oaks, sweet­gums, and birch­es grow and mature on the South Island, more of the Island will expe­ri­ence the cool­ing ben­e­fits of tree shade, thus ensur­ing that the island becomes a place to escape the city heat in upcom­ing summers. 

Besides shade, what oth­er ben­e­fits do these 3,500 trees pro­vide for New York­ers? For one, trees are experts at remov­ing pol­lu­tion from the air. The Island’s for­est removes 1,160 pounds of air pol­lu­tants annu­al­ly, improv­ing the air qual­i­ty and lung health of peo­ple in the sur­round­ing area. The more trees in a giv­en area, the bet­ter the air qual­i­ty .

Trees also ben­e­fit the health of the plan­et by stor­ing car­bon. The trees of Gov­er­nors Island con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 1,245 tons of stored car­bon, and every year they cap­ture and sequester an addi­tion­al 22 tons. Mature trees store more car­bon that younger ones, sim­ply because they have more sur­face area and larg­er root sys­tems. Every year, trees grow a dense net­work of small feed­er roots, made of car­bon, that will die and be turned into organ­ic mat­ter in the late fall. The larg­er the tree, the more feed­er roots they grow each year, and the more car­bon they sequester underground. 

This is just one rea­son why the Trust is ded­i­cat­ed to main­tain­ing the health and longevi­ty of as many mature trees as pos­si­ble, and is tak­ing steps to reduce the upper canopy of at-risk trees so their roots sys­tems can con­tin­ue to cap­ture and store car­bon for many years to come. 

In addi­tion to stor­ing car­bon, trees can help mit­i­gate the effects of cli­mate change by reduc­ing storm dam­age and runoff. Tree roots act as giant sponges, soak­ing up vast quan­ti­ties of water that could quick­ly turn into tox­ic runoff, and the canopy inter­cepts del­uges of rain that would oth­er­wise hit the ground with force and cause com­paction or flash floods. On Gov­er­nors Island, the canopy pre­vents up to 378,000 gal­lons of runoff annu­al­ly, improv­ing the soil of our park space and pre­vent­ing pol­lu­tants from con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing New York Harbor.

All the data result­ing from this sur­vey is incred­i­bly valu­able to the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, as it will help inform deci­sions on tree plant­i­ng, park main­te­nance, con­struc­tion projects, and pro­gram­ming events. The 3,500 trees on Gov­er­nors Island are a vital resource to the peo­ple of New York, and the Trust is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that this cru­cial urban for­est remains healthy and resilient for many years to come. To learn more about urban forests and trees, come to Gov­er­nors Island on Octo­ber 15 for our City of For­est Day event — includ­ing a spe­cial vol­un­teer activ­i­ty and a tree walk­ing tour around the Island. Click here to learn more and register.