The Natural Areas Conservancy champions urban natural areas in New York City and across the nation through innovative research, partnerships, and advocacy.
We increase the health and resilience of urban forests and wetlands, catalyze connections between people and nature, and strengthen the environmental workforce.
We’re the leading environmental organization in NYC for natural areas, and we convene a 21-city network of experts to preserve, improve, and expand these spaces nationally.
Through our research, advocacy efforts, trail improvements, workforce development initiatives, and community programming, we aim to create better, healthier green and blue spaces for everybody. Here are a few highlights from our recent work.
We’re a team of dedicated experts in the fields of conservation, urban forestry, ecology, parks advocacy, and more.
Meet the Team
In 2012, we launched the NAC with the conviction that NYC’s forests and wetlands are critical resources that every New Yorker deserves to enjoy. Since then, we’ve grown in big ways.
We are proud of the milestones we’ve reached so far—from conducting breakthrough research and advocating for natural areas in City Council, to training passionate STEM students and expanding access to NYC’s trails. Our past triumphs inspire us to continue our work for natural areas and undoubtedly add to this growing timeline.
The organization was founded as NYC’s first and only park conservancy dedicated to researching, managing, and advocating for the city’s natural areas.
After Superstorm Sandy, the NAC partnered with NYC Parks to lead restoration efforts and revitalize miles of coastline.
We conducted the first Ecological Assessment of 10,000 acres of NYC forests and wetlands — collecting data that informs the care of our natural areas.
We launched a program to care for nature trails in Marine Park and Bronx Park. Its success paved the way for our current program that now operates in over 25 NYC parks!
We developed a new partnership with the City University of New York to equip college students with the technical training needed to advance in environmental careers through paid internships. We have impacted more than 100 students with this program!
We expanded our work on NYC’s nature trails to new parks and launched programming to connect New Yorkers to these restorative spaces. Since then, we have engaged 2,500+ volunteers and formalized 150 miles of trail.
With NYC Parks, we released a 25-year plan to bolster and protect NYC’s vital urban forests – the first citywide vision for this critical infrastructure.
We created a network to promote healthy forests in cities across the United States, bringing together professionals from - at the time - over 15 major cities to strengthen research, share information, and collaborate.
While staying safe, our staff kept working on NYC’s nature trails, produced breakthrough research about the importance of healthy natural areas for public health, and continued to advocate for public greenspace despite the hardship of the global pandemic.
The NAC’s executive director was appointed to Mayor Adams’ transition team. Sarah Charlop-Powers continues to be a leading voice for nature and natural climate solutions. We also released the Wetlands Management Framework, which outlined a plan to care for the city’s wetlands for the next 30 years.
Our scientists published research connecting healthy natural areas to greater cooling during the hot summer months. This work built on the release of the first comprehensive report on carbon stored in NYC’s forests. We hope this information will advance management and motivate policymakers to ensure forests survive more severe weather.
For more than 10 years, we’ve closely collaborated with NYC Parks to ensure that everyone has access to natural areas and understands their impact because we believe that by working together–with New Yorkers and our partners–we can create healthy and resilient natural areas and more sustainable and dynamic cities.
