City of Forest Day is a citywide day of events to raise awareness of the importance of the NYC urban forest and the essential role New Yorkers play in caring for the “lungs” of our city. Presented by Forest for All NYC in partnership with the Parks and Open Space Partners coalition and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks), City of Forest Day engages partner organizations like yours to offer a variety of tree-related events ranging from stewardship to planting to educational tree walks to art-making.
ROOSEVELT ISLAND CELEBRATES CITY OF FOREST DAY 2025
Free Forest Fun for All Ages
Join us Saturday, October 4th at Lighthouse Park from Noon to 4 PM to celebrate City of Forest Day and the urban tree canopy!
Noon to 2 PM get hands-on with tree planting and care as we add layers of mulch around nearly a hundred baby trees planted in 2022 to create a winter blanket of ground protection. Learn about birds who call our trees home.
NEWLY ADDED: At 2 PM join local author and illustrator Amanda Baehr Fuller for story time. She will read her children’s book Bunny Made Tea, featuring a forest dwelling bunny who harvests flowers for tea in a tale of generosity and kindness. Neighbor Louella Streitz will make hibiscus tea to compliment the story. Some lucky readers may even get to take home a book.
iDig2Learn teams up with Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance again to host the return of the world renowned Jody Sperling Time Lapse Dance ensemble who perform their mesmerizing works in a 45 minute performance starting at 2:30 PM.
Don’t miss this.
Time Lapse has performed on Arctic ice, globally – including most recently Egypt – and are based in NYC. Six dancers perform to music composed of sounds from nature while wearing nine foot tall silks, hand painted with tree branches that whirl and twirl until the audience is hypnotized. After the performance, join a short movement “Communi-tree” workshop for all ages with the dancers.
Meet neighboring event partners from NYC Health +Hospitals/Coler for healthy snacks.
And back by popular demand …meet Jon McCormack of Poppa’s Pantry to sample small delicious bites and stop by to meet Andi from Niava’s Body Bar to try forest-inspired scented body butters.
And because trees give us oxygen, remove air pollutants, provide cooling shade and stabilize the land with water-absorbing leaves and roots to prevent flooding during storms we will celebrate with carrot cake (with and without nuts) created by local Andrea Jackson.
Thanks in advance to RIOC’s communication and grounds team and PSD plus volunteers including members of the Haki Compost Collective, Girl Scouts and RI Garden Club plus Coach Scot’s baseball team players for supporting this event.
iDig2Learn is a proud member of Forest for All NYC Coalition which aims to expand and care for NYC’s tree canopy. This is iDig2Learn’s fourth year of hosting City of Forest Day on Roosevelt Island and is made possible by individual donors like you and funding by NYC Green Fund, Partnership for Parks, City Parks Foundation, Roosevelt Island Public Purpose funds administered by NYCT, The City Gardens Club of NYC, Forest for All NYC, Parks & Open Space, NYC Parks and Trees New York. No RSVP needed.
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE: Choreographer Jody Sperling and her Time Lapse Dance ensemble present a visually stunning program exploring human entanglement with nature.
Featured works highlight the acclaimed climate-engaged collaboration between Sperling and environmental composer Matthew Burtner. Appropriately for City of Forest Day, “Arbor” illuminates the hidden intimacy of trees. “Plastic Harvest,” a romp about plastic proliferations, provokes contemplation of what–and who–society throws away. The program also features a “Rise,” new work-in-progress reimagining our relationship to water in the wake of shifting tides that are reconfiguring places we call home. All these works use the company’s signature transformational costuming that abstracts human movement into elemental and organic forces.
Stay for a short experiential “Communi-tree” movement accessible workshop that facilitates embodied connections between ourselves and the natural world. We draw inspiration from the way trees collaborate via the “wood-wide-web” to form intricate, multi-species societies. Participants will practice rooting, standing tall, branching out, and forging new connections. The workshop culminates with Jody and company teaching a movement sequence from their dance Arbor.
All ages and levels of experience are welcome!
City of Forest Day was a subject on the Brian Lehrer radio program this morning. Roosevelt Island resident Sherie Helstien was listening to the program when she heard City of Forest Day was an upcoming subject. Ms Helstien called Ms Delfico to encourage her to call in about tomorrow’s Roosevelt Island City Of Forest Day celebration. Listen to Ms Delfico at the 6 minute 35 second mark of clip below.
