Title: Celebrating NYC's Forests

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David Furst: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm David Furst, filling in for Brian today. Let's end the show today with a favorite topic for this show, trees. Tomorrow is the fourth annual City of Forest Day, the city being New York City. There are more than 100 events scheduled across the five boroughs. We'll have lots of opportunities to turn our attention to the trees that shade us from the sun, remind us of the seasons, and bring some beauty to the cityscape.

To talk about what's happening tomorrow and what we need from trees, what they need from us, we are joined by Sophia Wohl, deputy director of the stewardship team at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Welcome to The Brian Lehrer Show.

Sophia Wohl: Hi, David. It's great to be here.

David Furst: It's great to have you with us. Hey, if you want to join this discussion, give us a call. Are you celebrating City of Forest Day tomorrow? Do you have anything that you'd like to talk about? Do you care for a street tree, perhaps, in your neighborhood? Or maybe you have a question for our guest about how to do that? Call us or text us, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Sophia, so you are deputy director of the stewardship team. What does the stewardship team do at the Parks Department?

Sophia Wohl: Thank you for asking that question. I think that's a great question, and I'm really excited to let everyone know a little bit more about the stewardship team. We're a small but mighty team at the New York City Parks Department. We engage the public by providing diverse opportunities for volunteers, New Yorkers to get involved in the direct care of natural resources in the city, including street trees and our natural areas, the forests, wetlands, trails of the city. We provide public events every week of the year. Then we also offer training and resources for stewards who want to take it a step further and do this type of volunteer work on their own time, and we call those folks our super stewards.

David Furst: Very cool. Speaking of public events, let's talk about City of Forest Day happening tomorrow. How did it get that name, and how did this get started?

Sophia Wohl: This is the fourth annual City of Forest Day. It's put on and organized by the Forest for All NYC Coalition, which is made up of a really diverse array of organizations and volunteer groups. It's in partnership with Parks and Open Space Partners and the New York City Parks Department. It takes the name from City of Water Day, which has been going on for more years, for more time. The goal of City of Forest Day is really to engage New Yorkers in the care of and even just the awareness and enjoyment of trees in the city. It's a collective day of action, and we hope to give back to the trees that help us breathe a little bit easier.

I think that's why we call them the lungs of our city. They provide so many benefits to us. We want to take one day, and as you mentioned, over 100 events. Actually, over 120 events across all five boroughs to bring people together to think about the trees a little bit more, and just potentially even foster a new connection with some of the green infrastructure that's around them every day.

David Furst: Let's talk about some of those events happening tomorrow. There is this wide range of activities. What did you say, more than 120? We can't get through the whole list, but maybe we can quickly highlight one in each borough, maybe from the top. Something that caught my eye in the Bronx is forest bathing at Wave Hill. Can you talk about that one? This is not really bathing in the usual sense, though, is it?

Sophia Wohl: No, it's organized by folks at Wave Hill. I can definitely speak to what they've described their event as. Bathing in the sense of taking in the natural surroundings of the beautiful setting up at Wave Hill in the Bronx. They're going to talk about some of the benefits that forest bathing can give folks, which would be helping with stress reduction, taking space to enjoy nature. Letting the forest that's all around you surround you.

David Furst: Bathing in the vibe of the forest.

Sophia Wohl: Exactly. [chuckles]

David Furst: I think we could all use a little bit of that right about now. Oh, you know what? Let's take a call very quickly. If you'd like to join this conversation, if you have a question about caring for trees, or maybe you just want to talk about trees or one of the events coming up this weekend, 212-433-9692. Christina, welcome to The Brian Lehrer Show.

Christina Delfico: Oh, thank you so much. It's really a pleasure to be here. I'm Christina Delfico, the founder of iDig2Learn, and we've been celebrating our world for 13 years, starting with school gardens. We love City of Forest Day and want to invite everyone to come out to Lighthouse Park from noon to 4:00 on Roosevelt Island in the middle of the East River to celebrate our day. We have some really special things happening.

David Furst: What are you doing?

Christina Delfico: Well, in order to look at trees as a who and not a what, we're getting to know different species because it's amazing that people can rattle off sneaker brands but may not know a species of trees.

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Christina Delfico: We're throwing them a party basically, because they give us oxygen and pull pollutants out of the air. Not only that, they shade us in really hot summers and also stabilize the land against flooding when we have storms. We're throwing a party for City of Forest Day. It's our fourth annual. In addition to hands-on planting a few species that are what Doug Tallamy calls keystone species of oak, which support over 500 species of butterflies, which a lot of people don't know, we are also introducing some sourwood trees that are beautiful.

We are really excited because we made a relationship through NYRP and The American Chestnut Foundation. Bart is delivering three American chestnuts. They're little saplings, but this is a tree that really nearly went extinct.

David Furst: Well, Christina-

Christina Delfico: Part of the reason-- Yes.

David Furst: -you are busy. [laughs] I applaud your efforts. Founder of iDig2Learn talking about the events happening in Roosevelt Island tomorrow. Oh my goodness, we have so many other events to get to. We started with the Bronx, and let's get to Manhattan right now. There's an event. This is a chance to do some tree planting in the Broadway Malls. Can you talk about this event?

Sophia Wohl: Yes. I believe this event will include planting in some existing tree beds and taking care of the street trees that are planted along the Broadway Mall between around 137th Street, which is going to be really exciting. I think street tree care is a really accessible way to get involved with caring for the urban forest. Street trees are right outside of our front doors. Anyone in the city can care for street trees. New York City Parks has a really wide variety of public events to be a starting point for people who want to get involved with street tree care, like the Broadway Malls Association and the Brotherhood Sister Sol, who are hosting that event that you mentioned in Manhattan tomorrow.

You can take it from there and plan your own events, maybe for City of Forest Day 2026.

David Furst: We're speaking with Sophia Wohl, Deputy Director of Stewardship, Environment and Planning at the New York City Parks Department. Your department is doing a project in Alley Pond Park in Queens, right? Tell us about that one.

Sophia Wohl: Yes. That's correct. We are going to be hosting a forest restoration event in Alley Pond Park tomorrow. That's one of our bread and butter events where we're running these throughout the year, but we focus on removing vegetation or plants that are competing with newly planted trees that we want to grow and eventually provide all of the really great benefits that mature trees provide, like increased canopy coverage, and shade, and air quality improvements. We need to make sure they get there. That's what we'll be working on in Alley Pond Park.

Something that makes it even more special and that we wanted to include for City of Forest Day is a macroinvertebrate sampling and identification activity that will be running concurrently in some small bodies of water near the site. Really wanted to shout out that event.

David Furst: I'll just quickly shout out a couple other events happening. Greenpoint in Brooklyn, home to a park that's part of this station's history. There's an event there in WNYC Transmitter Park tomorrow. There's also a fun one on Staten Island, counting trees at Conference House Park. Can you quickly tell us about that one?

Sophia Wohl: Yes, of course. The event at Conference House Park is part of the 2025 Tree Census, which is a chance for volunteers to get involved in identifying, assessing the condition of, and identifying trees across landscaped parks over the whole city. Every 10 years, the Parks Department runs a tree census, and this event is part of that, and they'll be continuing throughout the fall. Once you attend one of these Trees Count events, which can be found on the New York City Parks website, you are set up with all of the tools you need to continue participating in the Trees Count independently.

You get set up with an app that you can use on your phone. You get a tape measure and some tree identification guides. It's a really cool chance for this to be maybe the first of many tree census activities that you participate in this fall.

David Furst: The City of Forest Day is happening tomorrow. Let's get to a couple of your phone calls right now. Nancy in the West Village. Welcome to The Brian Lehrer Show.

Nancy: Well, thank you. I wanted to report about a wonderful collaboration we had with the Parks Department. Our co-op has a block with city trees. They were in the tiniest tree wells, and we had to do some repaving in that block. In coordination with that, the Parks Department came in and they widened the tree wells and put the protectors around them, and basically supervised the whole process so that the trees were not injured at all in the repaving.

Our co-op has a yearly yard sale where we raise money to put flowers and other greenery in those much bigger tree wells, and it's totally transformed this block. So appreciative to the Parks Department for their cooperation and their help in that project.

David Furst: That's great. Is that a project you're familiar with?

Sophia Wohl: I can't say I know about this specific project, but it sounds really wonderful. It's really inspiring to hear about groups of New Yorkers who come together and help pool their own resources to help care for street trees. I think it's a really great example of something that we hope that could be more common on many blocks across New York City. Thanks for sharing.

David Furst: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing. Thanks for all of the phone calls today. I think it's time for us all to do some-- What did you call it again? Forest bathing?

Sophia Wohl: Yes. Forest bathing.

David Furst: [chuckles] Tomorrow is a great day for it. Tomorrow is the fourth annual City of Forest Day. That's where we're going to have to leave it for today. Thank you so much. Sophia Wohl, deputy director of the stewardship team at the New York City Parks Department. Have a happy City of Forest Day tomorrow.

Sophia Wohl: Thank you, everyone.

David Furst: That is all we have time for. Have a fantastic weekend. Get out there, do some forest bathing. I'm David Furst. This is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Brian will be back on Monday. Stay tuned for All Of It that is coming up next.

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