Tree Health and Inventory Intern

AGENCY DESCRIPTION
The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation manages 14 percent of the land in New York City with facilities ranging from playgrounds and large parks, to tranquil wooded areas and more than 14 miles of beaches. Parks serve as New Yorkers’ backyards, as vital meeting areas for outdoor play and recreation – but also as an important tool in mitigating the effects of climate change, critical engines for economic growth and development.
NYC Parks’ mission is to grow, maintain, and program a world-class park system prioritizing equity, access, safety, and nature.
In the past year, Parks completed a number of initiatives citywide that helped New Yorkers access their shared public spaces. These include:
• Securing more than $700 million in funds to build or substantially reconstruct six recreation centers, including two opening in 2026: the $141 million Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush, Brooklyn and the $92 million Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center in Tompkinsville, Staten Island.
• Expanding our free learn-to-swim programs to reach an additional 4,800 second graders and bring the total to nearly 18,000 youth served by our essential swim programming.
• Keeping more than 8 million people safe at the city’s public beaches last summer along with over 1 million patrons at outdoor pools, thanks to the highest number of Parks lifeguards since 2019, including a 23 percent increase in new recruits.
• Completing a $23 million investment in public space at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, bringing new playgrounds, sports equipment, and seating areas to NYCHA residents.
• Launching our latest Tree Census, which involves thousands of volunteers to measure the size, location, and condition of the city’s trees. Conducted once every ten years, the census helps to identify areas where more trees can be planted, supporting a more equitable urban canopy and increasing the many benefits trees provide.
• Celebrating the historic expansion of the Second Shift program, dedicating extra maintenance services for 100 additional hot spots at parks across the five boroughs during peak evening and weekend hours. This expanded the total sites citywide serviced by dedicated staff to 200 hot spots.
• Adding 100 new Parks Enforcement Patrol positions to bolster patrol strength throughout the city.
• Promoting equity in athletic spaces by rolling out new athletic permit rules and fee changes to improve access for non-profit and youth organizations.
UNIT DESCRIPTION
The Permits & Plan Review (PPR) team handles tree work permit requests and reviews small- and large-scale construction projects. We review incoming applications to make sure applicants adhere to all Parks’ rules and regulations and standards when working around trees and planting new trees. The team provides comments and guidance on best practices during review and manages thousands of requests received on a yearly basis for all five boroughs.
POSITION TITLE
Tree Health and Inventory Intern
INTERNSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES
The intern will gather information on tree planting mortality and success rates for permitted plantings and existing trees. PPR has thousands of permitted and reviewed projects where tree maintenance and tree care cannot be regulated or enforced easily. Therefore, the planting and preservation success with these projects can vary. Quantifying the success of trees preserved and planted between projects will help the team and agency learn which variables lead to lower mortality rates and understand the survival rate of the urban canopy on construction projects.
As part of the internship, the intern would also analyze PPR’s database and ForMS record keeping on these projects and inspect trees where a final inspection has yet to be requested. This would be helpful, because the team’s inspections at the end of construction rely on the applicant to request, which leaves gaps in PPR’s record keeping. The intern would assist in reviewing the data and looking at newer applications that have yet to reach signoff (a critical touch point within the permitting process).
The intern will learn the following:
• Parks’ tree work permitting process and urban forest planning
• Parks’ tree preservation standards
• Parks’ tree planting standards
• NYC’s tree laws and regulations
• How to gather data in the field
• How to review plan sets and surveys
nyc.gov/internships
• Hone their arboricultural skills such as tree ID, management of urban stands of trees and gathering data for
• Hone their database analyzing skills
• How to map data (with assistance)
QUALIFICATIONS/SPECIAL SKILLS/AREAS OF INTEREST
• Tree ID course and/or general plant health knowledge or experience
• Prefer GIS and database course or experience, such as: ArcGIS suite, AutoCAD, etc.
• Basic understanding of mapping and reading maps
• Experience using Microsoft Office suite: Excel, SharePoint, Teams, PowerPoint
• Interest and/or majoring in urban forestry/forestry, conservation, environmental planning, environmental sciences and/or sustainability
• Currently enrolled college student
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Start date is beginning of June; exact date TBD.
This opportunity does not include remote workdays
Title: City Seasonal Aide
Salary: $19.14 per hour
The expectation will be for the intern(s) to work in-person, but be in the field once or twice a week (accessible by train). They will be working four days a week, eight hours each day, or 32 hours per week. The internship will span, ideally, late May through early August.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Please email cover letter and resume to Leslie.Nusblatt@parks.nyc.gov