New York Restoration Project

NATURE IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF EVERY NEW YORKER. At New York Restoration Project, we believe everyone deserves access to beautiful, high-quality public green space. Since our founding in 1995 by Bette Midler, we have been partnering with underserved communities to take back public space by picking up trash, planting trees, and renovating parks and gardens. The resulting transformation and ongoing care has been proven to lower crime, improve health, and reduce feelings of depression and worthlessness. Working together, neighbors become neighborhoods.

As New York’s only citywide conservancy, NYRP brings private resources to spaces that lack adequate municipal support, fortifying the City’s aging infrastructure and creating a safer, healthier, and happier city for every New Yorker. Every space that NYRP adopts receives a range of services and physical improvements intended to provide beautiful, clean, environmentally functional spaces.

The benefits of having access to nature cannot be overstated and have been demonstrated in countless research studies. Central to NYRP’s mission is creating a context for community to happen. Every space that NYRP adopts receives a range of services and physical improvements intended to provide beautiful, safe, clean, environmentally functional spaces.

NYRP: renovates NYRP community gardens in the most dense and least green, under-resourced neighborhoods throughout New York City; supports agricultural activity in NYRP gardens; and delivers garden workshops. We: educate K-8th grade school students citywide on the environment, nature, and nutrition citywide; offer fitness classes in parks and gardens; produce public programming events; host tree giveaway events for underserved New Yorkers; and build, develop, renovate, and improve Department of Education school yards, NYCHA housing campuses, senior citizen centers, local gardens, and other public spaces. Finally, we: plant trees, shrubs, and native perennials; build new public space on the waterfront site of Sherman Creek Park and return waterfront access to the under-served Washington Heights/Inwood community; and remove trash and produce compost.

NYRP has pioneered a unique land-based approach to community building that combines:

• developing and maintaining land that is our own and land owned by government and private entities;
• integrating community needs, priorities, and partners into all our work;
• planning and executing projects swiftly using in-house design and operations staff;
• activating spaces through urban agriculture, education, fitness and cultural programming; and
• operating at multiple scales from site to neighborhood to citywide.

Public space is where communities come together with their neighbors, children connect with their families, kids form lifelong friendships, individuals form lasting bonds, and families meet other families to build lasting friendships. New York Restoration Project reclaims and restores spaces as a shared community resource and envisions a future where open space is an integral and essential right of every community, contributing to the health and well-being of all citizens.

Founded by Bette Midler in 1995, New York Restoration Project has:


• Acquired and successfully run 52 community gardens in all five boroughs of New York City, saving them from commercial development.
• Revitalized more than 400 acres of public land throughout New York City.
• Co-led MillionTreesNYC with the New York City Parks Department, planting 250,000 of the million trees, and reaching our million tree goal two years ahead of schedule.
• Planted over 350,000 trees (including the 250,000 from MillionTreesNYC), 20,000 shrubs, 145,000 plants, and 58,000 bulbs throughout parks, community gardens, NYCHA campuses, schools, and other public spaces citywide.
• Given away 68,000 trees to New York City residents to plant on privately-owned land.
• Renovated and upgraded over 300 gardens in the least green and most economically depressed and underserved neighborhoods of New York City.
• Transformed four city parks – Ft Tryon, Ft Washington, Highbridge, and Sherman Creek. For example, we converted Sherman Creek, a five-acre dumping ground on the Harlem River, into a thriving park that includes an urban forest, a children's garden, a saltwater marsh, and public gathering space.
• Educated more than 65,000 K-8th grade school children about ecology, nutrition, and the environment using our community gardens and parks as outdoor classrooms.
• Engaged over 25,000 attendees through our arts, culture, and fitness programs.
• Mobilized over 65,000 volunteers in community greening projects.
• Removed 5,125,000 pounds of trash from highways, abandoned lots, gardens, and parks.
• Diverted 1,020,000 pounds of food scraps from the waste stream through composting.

What NYRP has done to date is unprecedented. We have transformed New York City’s urban landscape so that it is greener, more accessible and usable, and healthier for 8.6 million New York City residents. This is especially true for those residents of economically depressed, underserved neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs, where nearly all of NYRP’s community gardens and parks are located. We turn land liabilities into assets.

Founded by Bette Midler in 1995, New York Restoration Project has:

• Acquired and successfully run 52 community gardens in all five boroughs of New York City, saving them from commercial development.
• Revitalized more than 400 acres of public land throughout New York City.
• Co-led MillionTreesNYC with the NYC Parks Dept, planting 250,000 of the million trees, and reaching our million tree goal two years ahead of schedule.
• Planted over 350,000 trees (including the 250,000 from MillionTreesNYC), 20,000 shrubs, 145,000 plants, and 58,000 bulbs throughout parks, community gardens, NYCHA campuses, schools, and other public spaces citywide.
• Given away 68,000 trees to New York City residents to plant on privately-owned land.
• Renovated and upgraded over 300 gardens in the least green and most economically depressed and underserved neighborhoods of New York City.
• Transformed four city parks – Ft Tryon, Ft Washington, Highbridge, and Sherman Creek. For example, we converted Sherman Creek, a five-acre dumping ground on the Harlem River, into a thriving park that includes an urban forest, a children's garden, a saltwater marsh, and public gathering space.
• Educated more than 65,000 K-8th grade school children about ecology, nutrition, and the environment using our community gardens and parks as outdoor classrooms.
• Engaged over 25,000 attendees through our arts, culture, and fitness programs.
• Mobilized over 65,000 volunteers in community greening projects.
• Removed 5,125,000 pounds of trash from highways, abandoned lots, gardens, and parks.
• Diverted 1,020,000 pounds of food scraps from the waste stream through composting.

We have carefully chosen the three strategies below to leverage NYRP’s unique expertise and maximize the benefits of merging environmental justice with social justice to make communities safer, healthier, and happier.

STRATEGY 1: Greening New York City
NYRP will green New York City by implementing the following initiatives:
• Garden Care and Maintenance
• Garden Stewardship Groups
• Urban Agriculture
• Garden Renovations
• Gardens for the City
• Tree Giveaways

STRATEGY 2: Communities Leading the Way
NYRP will prepare communities to build future environmental leaders, manage community gardens, and program community gardens by implementing the following initiatives:
• Environmental Education Programs
• Community Engagement
• Community Garden Activation Program
• Public Programming

STRATEGY 3: Building Resilient Urban Ecosystems
NYRP will pursue innovative strategies to build resilient urban ecosystems through the following initiatives:
• Highbridge Park Care and Reforestation
• Sherman Creek Park Care and Expanded Programming
• Living Shoreline Development
• Tree Stewardship
• Removing Trash and Redirecting Compost Material