Nine Cities That Love Their Trees—and What They’re Doing about It by National Geographic Society

In celebration of Arbor Day last April, we gave viewers the gift of a bird’s-eye view of the tree canopy in nine different cities. “I love the abstract patterns of cartography, and the idea of making data interesting and artful,” said graphics editor Ryan Morris, a member of the project team. The mapping was inspired by the work of Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, a remote sensing expert at the University of Vermont. You can actually zoom in on the map and pick out a single tree. Of the nine cities shown, which is the most tree friendly? Pittsburgh, with a 42% tree cover leads, with Austin (37%) and Washington, DC (36%) following behind.