Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bette Midler celebrated the two-year anniversary of MillionTreesNYC Monday by planting tree number 250,000 in Queens.
The Southern Magnolia was planted in the front yard of Sharon and Thomas Stoney’s St. Albans home.
“I’m overwhelmed that we are planting our 250,000th tree,” said Midler, founder of the New York Restoration Project. “It just proves once again that New Yorkers are the strongest, toughest and most caring people in the world.”
Midler says the new trees are transforming the city block by block and borough by borough making it a greener and healthier place.
The city has completed 25 percent of its goal to plant one million trees by 2017.
The million trees initiative reached a new milestone Monday with the help of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a special guest in Queens.
Bloomberg was joined by legendary entertainer Bette Midler in St. Albans to plant tree number 250,000.
The goal is to put one million trees in the ground by the year 2017.
At the event, the mayor and Midler also announced a new program called “Put Down Roots” which encourages homeowners to plant trees on their property and they can get them for free.
“We are going to continue to plant trees along our streets and sideways and schoolyards and especially and front and backyards and in fact the next phase is all about greening residential and private businesses,” Bloomberg said.
For more information, homeowners can visit http://www.milliontreesnyc.org.
