Читать книгу The Outdoor Citizen. Get Out, Give Back, Get Active онлайн

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The only city in the US to have reached its goal to plan one million trees is New York City as part of its Million Trees NYC campaign. The campaign came about when then-mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) Founder Bette Midler were viewing six hundred blossoming cherry trees along the Harlem and Hudson rivers that NYRP had planted. It’s said that “Bette turned to the Mayor and said ‘why should we stop here? We should plant one million!’”64 At the time, no other city had achieved this, but the city achieved its objective through three strategies:65 1. Giving away trees to private homeowners in areas with especially poor tree coverage, which “catalyzed the planting of 195,465 trees in residents’ front and backyards.” 2. Utilizing a mix of public and private funding. In 2007, the city committed $350 million to plant 750,000 trees. In 2008, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and David Rockefeller contributed $10 million, and other large donors, from Home Depot to TD Bank to Toyota, contributed more than $1 million. 3. Having committed leadership. Local NYC government and the NYRP, a non-governmental organization, committed to seeing the project through, and New York residents supported it. Inspired by the success of Million Trees NYC, Milan, Italy, utilizing its partnership with Michael Bloomberg’s not-for-profit consultancy Bloomberg Associates, launched a plan in June 2019 to plant three million trees by 2030.