100 new trees for LIC

If you’ve recently found yourself noticing a little bit more green around the city, you’re not alone; trees have been planted everywhere over the past few years and many more are on the way.
KeySpan celebrated Arbor Day on Friday, April 27 by presenting the New York City Parks Department with a $100,000 check to be used to plant 100 new trees in the Long Island City, Queensbridge and Ravenswood neighborhoods. In addition, they distributed 200 plants to those who attended the ceremony at Queensbridge Park.
After accepting the donation, Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe ceremoniously planted a London planetree with the help of KeySpan Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert B. Catell.
The Parks Department confirmed that the city is 100,000 trees greener than it was a decade ago, reporting a 19 percent increase since the last street tree census taken in 1995-1996. There are now 592,130 trees growing on our city’s streets, according to the most recent count of every single tree in the five boroughs.
Adding to the greening of New York will be the planting of one million additional trees, as promised by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his PlaNYC2030 address. Of those million new trees, 220,000 will be street trees, with Queens getting 55,000 of those.
Because of the recent survey, the numerous benefits of trees can now be quantified - the total annual benefit of each tree is an average of $209.
Additionally, it was found that street trees helped to remove 2,202 tons of air pollution, reduced rain runoff by 890.6 million gallons and an saved an estimated $28 million on electricity and natural gas consumption annually. The study also credited street trees with providing the city with $53 million in aesthetic benefits.