Are enough trees being planted in NYC?

NEW YORK - According to new data released by the Mayor's Office, New York City is planting dramatically fewer trees this fiscal year when compared to last year, leading to criticism from environmental groups. 

The report shows that the Department of Parks and Recreation planted just over 2,700 trees in the first four months of the fiscal year, down from 5,000 in the same period of the year prior.

"We all need to be paying attention and continuing to invest in the important asset that is the New York City urban forest," said Emily Nobel Maxwell of The Nature Conservancy of New York.

But while at first glance those numbers may not seem very good, the city's Parks Department says they are more than a little misleading. According to officials with the Parks Department, it all comes down to the changing and shifting New York climate. Summer has stayed hotter later into fall, and you cannot plant trees in the heat. 

"All of a sudden you'll see we're planting way more trees in December and January than we ever did because the soil is not really freezing in the way it used to," said Jennifer Greenfeld, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Parks Department. "We'll surpass the number of trees we planted over the last five years." 

Greenfeld says that if they keep up at the pace they're at, they'll end up planting over 13,000 trees, more than they have in the past 6 years.