Cities Are Getting Greener

American cities are in the middle of a quiet race — not to build higher, but to plant more. According to a national survey of city forestry departments, urban areas in the United States planted over 1.2 million trees last year, the highest figure ever recorded. Budgets for city trees have doubled in a decade, and programs that once depended on volunteers now employ professional teams.

The reason is temperature. A street with mature trees can be several degrees cooler in summer than a street without them, because leaves provide shade and release water into the air. For residents of hot neighborhoods, this is not decoration; it affects health, energy bills, and whether an elderly neighbor can walk to the store in July.

Trees are only part of the picture. Rooftop gardens have spread across office buildings in Chicago and New York, while several cities are replacing unused parking lots with small parks. Some cities now pay residents to plant trees in their own yards, and schools run 'adopt a tree' programs, so children water the young trees they will grow up beside. In Phoenix, officials are testing which native plants survive extreme heat with the least water, hoping to green a desert city without draining its rivers.

Challenges remain. A young tree needs years of watering and care, and maintenance is the cost cities most often underestimate. Roughly one in five newly planted urban trees dies within five years. The survey's authors conclude that planting is the easy headline; keeping trees alive is the real work.