The last Friday of April in the United States marks the celebration each year of Arbor Day.  A day usually marked in cities by planting trees, the first U.S. Arbor Day, April 10, 1872 resulted in the planting of an estimated one million trees. Â
In honor of this year’s Arbor Day, National Geographic created maps taking a look at tree coverage in nine of the largest cities in the U.S. in a feature entitled, “Nine Cities That Love Their Trees”. Â
The feature looks at each cities and calculated the percentage of urban tree canopy. Â On the list, Pittsburgh ranked the highest with a tree cover of 42%. Â Many of the surrounding hillsides, once denuded of trees due to mining, logging, and development, have been reclaimed by forests. Â The city also has four large city parks that adds to the extensive but patchy tree coverage across the city. Â Washington, D.C. ranked second on the list with 36% tree cover. Â Other cities covered are: New York, Philadelphia (see the article Every Tree Counts for information about Philadelphia’s PhillyTreeMap program), Austin, Detroit, Baltimore, Portland, and Tampa. Â The footer lists the source locations for each of the datasets used.
Visit: Nine Cities That Love Their Trees – National Geographic