Trees of New York City  The land comprising New York City holds approximately 5.2 million trees. As of 2020, there are 168 different tree species growing in New York City. The New York City government, along side an assortment of environmental organizations, actively work to plant and maintain the trees. As of 2020, New York City held 44,509 acres of urban tree canopy with 24% of its land covered in trees. Trees have grown continuously on the mainland and islands that now comprise New York City since the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Trees have inhabited the lands in or around what is now New York City for over 300 million years, far before the existence of humanity. The first human settlement in the NYC area is dated as early as 9,000 years ago, this marked the beginning of human's permanently altering the old-growth forest ecosystem. Humanity's impact of the trees in New York City greatly accelerated with European colonization of the Americas as the new settlers brought with them advanced metals tools and tree processing technologies paired with a high appetite towards lumber that they would both sell and use locally in the Thirteen Colonies, as well as send back to the Old World. While the Native American population lived off and with the Northeast's forest ecosystem relatively symbiotically, the new European colonists with their higher population density, sedentary housing needs, and agriculture techniques that diminished the need to harvest wild fruits from trees. The New World found itself rapidly deforested, New York City included. The Lenape peoples who inhabited the greater NYC area directly prior to European colonization relied on trees for food, shelter, tool materials, fuel, and medicine. The typical Lenape house, called a longhouse, relied on the bending of the trunks taken from small trees to create a series of arches to serve as the frame. The Lenape used the Zanthoxylum tree as medicine for toothaches because chewing on the leaves or bark creates a tingling, or numbing effect in the mouth. The Lenape called Governors Island: “Pagganck,” which means “nut island,” named after the areas abundance of hickory nut trees. At the corner of Cherry Street and Franklin Square, the Lenape peoples planted and maintained a vast cherry orchard. When the Dutch took control of the orchard, they created “Cherry Street” amidst the trees. George Washington later lived at 1 Cherry Street, the location being notable as the nation’s first presidential residence.