Forty-seven beautiful trees were planted throughout the Metropolitan Hospital campus this fall, as part of the first hospital partnership with Million Trees NYC, an initiative to increase New York City's "urban forest" by 20% with one million new trees planted in the five boroughs by 2017. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, one of the benefits of increasing the number of trees in urban environments is cleaner air and fewer pollutants that trigger asthma attacks and exacerbate other respiratory diseases. The program is a collaboration of the New York Restoration Project, the Mayor's PlaNYC initiative and the New York City Parks Department.

December 2008