Which are New York's Greenest Boroughs?

Staten Island is New York's greenest borough. 59% of Staten Island is covered in either landscaped or natural greenery. A large percentage of that green land cover is provided by the borough's 5,566 acres of forest. At the other end of the scale is Manhattan. Only 28% of Manhattan is covered with natural or landscaped greenery making it New York's least green borough.

A new interactive map from the Natural Areas Conservancy can help people in New York find their nearest green spaces. The NAC's Nature Map shows where you can find green spaces in New York and how much green land cover can be found in each neighborhood. If you select a borough on the map you can not only view where all its green spaces are but you can also view how many acres of forest, freshwater wetland, salt marsh and stream can be found in the borough. For example once upon a time Manhattan had hundreds of freshwater streams. Most of those streams however have long been buried or filled, and today it only has 2,224 feet of streams. In contrast Staten Island has 471,575 feet of freshwater streams.

Here are the percentages of green land cover in all five New York boroughs:

59% Staten Island
41% Bronx
40% Queens
31% Brooklyn
28% Manhattan

The Nature Map can also tell you which are New York's greenest and least green council districts. Select a district from the map's drop-down menu and you can view the amount of green land cover in a district and how much forest, freshwater wetland, salt marsh and stream can be found in the district.