It's a forest out there.
A new census has counted 666,134 trees on New York City streets, 12.5 percent more than the number recorded in 2006.
The City Parks Department survey — conducted with the help of 2,241 volunteers who not only tallied trees but mapped their locations, measured their circumferences and documented their species type — found that Queens is the city's most sylvan borough, with 242,000 trees. Brooklyn has the second-greatest number of trees (173,070), Staten Island, the third (103,313).
But it's the Bronx that has seen the most significant growth in its tree population, a 39 percent increase over the last decade.
The city's widest tree is an 87-inch-diameter pin oak near 240-37 Maryland Road in Little Neck, the census found.
NYC's largest street tree is this pin oak in Queens. Check it out on the new NYC Street Tree Map: https://t.co/ltKmCERZnZ pic.twitter.com/uvsQIWl2HD
— NYC Parks (@NYCParks) November 4, 2016
If you're looking for arboreal majesty a little closer to home, you can use this interactive map created by the Parks Department to locate the biggest tree in each of the four other boroughs:
► Brooklyn has a 61-inch-diameter London planetree on 5th Street near Avenue N in Midwood
► Staten Island has a 64-inch-diameter London planetree on Walnut Street near Davis Avenue in Randall Manor
► The Bronx has a 64-inch-diameter black oak on the southwestern corner of Edson and Bussing Avenues in Wakefield
► Manhattan has a 60-inch-diameter English elm at W 163th Street and St. Nicolas Avenue in Washington Heights
So what do these hulking hardwoods do for us besides provide shade? They remove pollutants from our air, help us conserve energy, reduce storm-water runoff, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The Parks Department map estimates that the city's biggest tree in Queens provides $643.23 in annual benefits.
