ECOS Zoom Speaker Series: ReLeaf

Christina McLaughlin from the NYS Department of Conservation’s Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) program will give attendees an overview of the state’s forestry programs and initiatives. Christina will describe how the New York ReLeaf program brings together tree care professionals, municipal staff, utility arborists, state and local government officials, educators, tree board members, and interested members of the public to provide outreach and tools to realize the benefits of a well-planned urban forest. One of the tools that Governor Hochul has provided in the 2024 State of the State Address and Executive Budget is an initiative to plant 25 million trees in New York State by 2033! This initiative is one of many facets of the state’s plan to fight the effects of climate change as outlined in New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Christina will talk about the state’s plans to get all of the planting work accomplished and how you and your community can become part of that plan.

Christina McLaughlin is the NYSDEC UCF Partnership Coordinator and in this role oversees the New York ReLeaf program. She coordinates the annual conference and outreach and education efforts for urban forestry. She started with DEC in 2016 as an environmental educator and joined the agency’s UCF Program in 2019. She has a bachelor of science in zoology from SUNY Oswego and a master of science in biodiversity conservation and policy from the University at Albany, where her thesis was on public knowledge of invasive species. She is a 2024 graduate of the Green Communities Leadership Institute.