Thousands Of Trees In Astoria, LIC Mapped By Parks Department

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Ever wished you could learn more about the hefty cottonwood tree inside LIC Dog Park, or the impressive ash towering over 34th Street in Astoria? It's never been easier, thanks to a new Parks Department map.

The interactive NYC Tree Map, was launched by the city last month, allowing New Yorkers to poke around for information about the more than 800,000 landscaped trees in parks and on sidewalks across the five boroughs.

A similar map of street trees had already been available, but the new version includes 150,000 newly mapped trees within city parks, creating a comprehensive view of each neighborhood's leafy canopy.

Clicking on a dot that represents an individual tree shows details like its species, trunk diameter, and history of pruning and inspections. Across Astoria, Long Island City and Sunnyside, a combined 20,429 trees are viewable on the map.

That includes the majestic white ash whose branches stretch over 34th Street between 34th and 35th avenues, and whose trunk measures 27 inches in diameter. It was last inspected in August 2021, the map shows.

Or, over in Astoria Park, there's the 38-inch-wide pin oak that stands proudly near the northeast entrance, on 19th Street and Ditmars Boulevard. It got a fresh pruning in July, the map shows.

The map can also be filtered by trunk diameter or species. Searching for trunks bigger than 30 inches in diameter shows that the biggest trees are not evenly distributed around Western Queens — with nearly none in the Hunter's Point and Court Square areas of Long Island City.

Still, there are some exceptions, like the 40-inch-wide Eastern cottonwood that sits inside LIC Dog Park, on the corner of 48th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard.

Other tree facts included in the Parks map include ecological benefits, such as the gallons of stormwater intercepted and tons of carbon dioxide reduced by each tree annually.

The map includes only those trees that the Parks Department oversees, meaning it excludes areas managed by conservancies or private entities. Thus, the trees that line Hunter's Point South Park and Gantry Plaza State Park do not appear on the map, since they fall under the purview of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy

"Our New York City trees provide countless benefits to the city and residents – they provide the air we breathe, help to keep temperatures down, and manage flood waters," Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said in a news release about the new map.

"The NYC Tree Map highlights the value of these natural resources and allows New Yorkers to report trees in need of care."

Check out the tree map online here.