NEW YORK (NYTIMES)- When Mayor Eric Adams named a commissioner recently to oversee New York's parks department, he spoke of how important the city's green spaces were for recreation and contemplation, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

But he also acknowledged having no particular agenda or master plan for the more than 12,140ha of park land under his control.

On Monday (Feb 14), the city's five borough presidents will ask Mr Adams to plant one million new trees by 2030, a revival of an ambitious and successful "million trees" initiative that started under former mayor Michael Bloomberg and was completed under his successor Bill de Blasio.

The borough presidents will also ask Mr Adams to honour his campaign pledge to devote 1 per cent of the city's budget to the parks department.

About 22 per cent of the city is covered by tree canopy. The figure has increased about 2 per cent in recent years.

New York has roughly seven million trees, or fewer than one tree for each of its 8.8 million residents, according to a recent Nature Conservancy report. About 650,000 trees line the streets, but they are not evenly distributed.

The Trust for Public Land, a conservation group that helps create public parks across the United States, found that low-income New Yorkers and people of colour have significantly less available park space than residents of neighbourhoods that are mostly white and wealthy. The allotment of trees somewhat follows that pattern.

It is estimated that the streetscape could accommodate 250,000 more trees; the rest of the new plantings would be in parks and other green spaces.

Trees absorb storm water and carbon dioxide and provide shade in summer, and their density has a measurable effect on the surrounding air temperatures.

City health department statistics indicate that 350 people in New York die each year because of heat-related causes - more than the number of those who die in traffic crashes.

With Mr Adams making healthy living a major component of his agenda, Mr Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, argued that the tree initiative was a natural for the mayor to embrace.

"This ties into everything he's talking about," Mr Richards said. "Having a healthy eating lifestyle is great, but having a healthy open space is just as good."