ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
New Yorkers are in the middle of their once-a-decade census for trees.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The goal is to keep tabs on the city's natural environment while counting and assessing every tree in the Big Apple.
SHAPIRO: Including the apple trees.
KELLY: Of course. The last census counted more than 800,000 trees recorded by an army of volunteers - volunteers like Wendy Reitmeier and her husband, Tom Bettridge. They both took part in the last census, and they're back at it this year.
WENDY REITMEIER: I love trees, and I was happy to be doing something that was outdoors and something that had a practical purpose that would be helpful to the city and taking care of trees.
SHAPIRO: All five boroughs in New York City are offering training sessions and volunteer opportunities for anyone who wants to participate.
KELLY: Yeah, you identify the tree. You measure its circumference, then check the health of the tree. All that data is entered into an app developed for the census.
SHAPIRO: It's about a three-minute process and one that Wendy and Tom have mastered. During the last census, in 2015, they were among New York City's supercounters.
REITMEIER: We counted about 3,700 trees. You know, it was never any kind of a contest for us. We were just enjoying doing it, so we kept going.
TOM BETTRIDGE: Yeah.
KELLY: Tree counting does change with the times. This year, the city's parks department will be using ground-based light detection and ranging scans attached to cars to automatically count the majority of trees.
SHAPIRO: Which leaves fewer trees for talliers like Wendy and Tom, but they say they are just happy to do their part for the city's environment.
BETTRIDGE: There aren't as many trees to count on that basis.
REITMEIER: There aren't. And I don't feel any need to run up the numbers. Just if we're both enjoying it, we'll keep doing it.
BETTRIDGE: Yeah.
KELLY: The result of this effort may mean a greener concrete jungle for New York residents.
SHAPIRO: The larger goal of the project is to increase the city's tree canopy from 22% to 30% by the time the next census rolls around a decade from now.
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