Mapping Trees in NYC

This project was set out to visualize the movements and the international spread of trees in order to understand how the movement of peoples (both forced and unforced) can affect the global landscape. This project is one part of a larger decolonization and counter-mapping project, Tending to Turtle Island: Indigenous Peoples, Settler Colonialism, and Plants in North America. Emphasizing the role of settler colonialism in these movements was one of the initial goals of mapping the spread of trees. We wanted to highlight the complicated relationships around Indigenous plants in the landscapes we call home. That said, scope of this portion of the project was initially rather large and intended to provide a global perspective on how colonial and imperial influences have impacted the world landscape. The scope was narrowed down upon a survey of what data was available in regards to the movements of trees and related flora. Because of the data accessible, our own personal positionalities, and our geographic location in New York City (NYC), only trees in the greater NYC area were tracked. This was accomplished through using a  2015 Street Tree Census  of NYC, available through NYC Open Data. This data set was the primary source of information for this part of the project.

Our counter-mapping efforts were informed primarily by research on critical cartography practices (Huggan, 1989; Perkins, 2004; Crampton & Krygier, 2005; Pavlovskaya, 2016) and Indigenous counter-mapping projects (Hunt & Stevenson, 2017; De Leeuw & Hunt, 2018). A goal of this part of the project was to convey that the landscape of, really, any region is inherently political whether one is aware of that and the implications or not. Looking towards counter-mapping practices assisted with navigating some of the possibilities for this project. Bringing a general sense of awareness and critical consciousness to one’s environment seemed like the most attainable goal and is something we hope to have accomplished with this work.

“In the beginning were the Indigenous people. And the Indigenous people were with native plants.” 

What does it mean to visualize the movement of trees? Especially, in the context of settler-colonialism? These questions are some of the many we had when starting this project and have continued asking throughout our research. Questions about the lasting impact of imperialism and colonialism in their many forms cannot be separated from any counter-mapping or, really, mapping project. This project itself has been made on unceded Lenni Lenape land, by occupants of unceded Lenapehoking.

Settler-colonialism, as it relates specifically to the Indigenous peoples of North America, has the goal of the removal and erasure of Indigenous peoples in order to take the land for use by settlers in perpetuity (Morris, 2019). This has led to significant changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. Although the relationship and affection between settlers' migration and native plants on the land needs to be studied further in a macroscopic context, the aim of this project has been to highlight the fact that Indigenous landscapes have been deeply impacted by colonial movements. By visualizing where certain trees came from, one can see that colonial and imperial powers have had a large hand in shaping the landscape. More, one can see how migration within the Americas by Indigenous peoples has also shaped the landscape. The long history of these movements has made identifying indigenous plants present in the Americas before the ecological disturbances brought about by colonialism difficult as the affects are so interwoven. In many ways, these trees represent a history all their own of the Americas, one often obscured. These trees, some of them hailing from faraway lands, compose the landscape of NYC and yet how many people in the metropolitan area pause to think about what it means to have a tree known as the Japanese maple or the Siberian elm in their backyard? What it means for the tree, themselves, and the people who lived on this land before Japanese maples and Norwegian elms called it "home"?

This map does not intend to provide any easy answers for these questions. Rather, in this map, we hope to present paths for considering an alternate way of knowing and understanding the landscapes we all call "home".

The map depicting the network of trees was created using ArcGIS software. Tree coordinates were gathered using the  2015 Tree Street Census  as primary data, available through NYC Open Data. These coordinates were designated as the "destination coordinates" in the map, marking where in the New York City, NY area the trees are located. Origin coordinates were gathered using Google Map coordinates, which were most consistent formatting-wise for inputting in ArcGIS. A majority of the origin coordinates are approximate locations as many plants provided in the NYC Open Data set do not have a singular country of origin. In fact, most have a range that crosses several geopolitical boundaries, necessitating approximate locations. Efforts were made to ensure that these coordinates reflect the original location of plants but there is certainly room for critique.

Users can navigate the map by following the lines which connect origin points to destination points in New York City. Information on the tree is provided including the Latin name, common name, an image, and additional notes. This data is primarily derived from the NYC Open Data set, which limits some information. The native names or the names used for these trees in their countries of origin are not provided currently though there are plans to collect this information to extend the utility of this tool.

Crampton, J. W., & Krygier, J. (2005). An introduction to critical cartography. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 4(1), 11-33.

De Leeuw, S., & Hunt, S. (2018). Unsettling decolonizing geographies. Geography Compass, 12(7), e12376.

Huggan, G. (1989). Decolonizing the map: post-colonialism, post-structuralism and the cartographic connection. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 20(4).

Hunt, D., & Stevenson, S. A. (2017). Decolonizing geographies of power: Indigenous digital counter-mapping practices on Turtle Island. Settler Colonial Studies, 7(3), 372-392.

NYC Open Data. (2015). 2015 Street Tree Census - Tree Data.  https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Environment/2015-Street-Tree-Census-Tree-Data/uvpi-gqnh 

Pavlovskaya, M. (2016). Digital place-making: insights from critical cartography and GIS. In The Digital Arts and Humanities (pp. 153-167). Springer, Cham.

Perkins, C. (2004). Cartography-cultures of mapping: power in practice. Progress in Human Geography, 28(3), 381-391.

This is part of a larger project: Tending to Turtle Island: Indigenous Peoples, Settler Colonialism, and Plants in North America
, which was completed by Pratt's School of Information Fall 2020 "Advanced Projects in Digital Humanities" class. Please see the rest of the project here:

 https://studentwork.prattsi.org/plants/ 

If citing this part of the project please use a version of the following citation:

Jiyoung Lee & Kelli Hayes, "Mapping Trees in NYC," Tending to Turtle Island: Indigenous Peoples, Settler Colonialism, and Plants in North America. Pratt Institute: 2020.  https://studentwork.prattsi.org/plants .

Author names are alphabetical and the order does not reflect the scale of the contribution.