Understanding MillionTrees NYC as an urban environmental experiment

How is New York City incorporating hybrid collaborations among the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the New York Restoration Project—a non-profit organization focused on enhancing underused green spaces throughout NYC—and citizens of the city to plant and sustain a million trees?  This paper presents results from the MillionTreesNYC initiative, focusing specifically on volunteer stewardship in the program to gauge the effects of this innovative program.  Although recent academic and policy studies have focused on the increasingly wide range of organizations working as stewards to conserve, manage, monitor, advocate for, or educate the public about the local environment, it remains unclear how individual citizens get involved in local stewardship initiatives and the effect of such involvement in the quality of the environment, as well as on the levels of civic engagement of those involved.  This paper is broken down into three sections.  First, I discuss the hybrid arrangements that have made this program successful.  Second, I explore the role that is specifically being played by the volunteer stewards who make the planting and maintenance of the trees possible.  Third and finally, I discuss the implications of this program on civic participation in New York City and the environmental quality of the city.  Within this discussion, I focus on the broader effects of this program, which is being touted as an city-wide initiative to mitigate climate change.