New York State has promised itself 25 million new trees by 2033, and it is being refreshingly honest about the journey: there is a public Tree Tracker where anyone can watch the count, which stands at about 355,000 so far. Plenty of governments would have quietly buried a number like that. New York put it on a website, which tells you they intend to be held to it. And this spring the state showed what catching up looks like. On Arbor Day, Commissioner Amanda Lefton announced 46 million dollars for the unglamorous, essential middle of the problem: the nurseries. Because before you can plant 25 million trees, somebody has to grow 25 million trees, and America's tree nurseries have been shrinking for decades.
The money funds a nursery discount program with grants from one hundred thousand up to 12 million dollars, so growers can expand their seed beds, hire hands and sell seedlings cheaper to everyone who plants. The state's own nursery, the Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery, has been raising seedlings for over a century and runs a public sale each spring where New Yorkers queue up for bundles of baby trees. The plan also goes looking for land with room to spare, partnering with owners of former farmland where forests once stood and can stand again. The prize is worth the patience: restored habitat for wildlife, cleaner drinking water, and shade for the neighbourhoods that swelter most in summer. Twenty five million is a mountain of trees, and New York is climbing it the right way, from the roots up. Progress is progress, and good on them for committing.
Our short take: figures and program details are from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's 2026 announcements, Commissioner Amanda Lefton, and Governor Kathy Hochul's office, with reporting by Adirondack Explorer. Photograph: Unsplash, a stand in nursery, not Saratoga itself.