Tree Stewardship

The Village of Irvington finds that the existence of trees within the Village makes a fundamental contribution to the health, safety and general welfare of Irvington citizens and the community at large. Trees, in addition to their aesthetic benefits, are essential to riparian habitat, wildlife, energy conservation, temperature moderation and the healthy ecology of the area; trees help improve air quality and reduce global warming. These benefits to the community and environment increase as trees mature. Maturation of trees protects surface water quality, provides shade, offers windbreaks, controls water pollution by reducing soil erosion and flooding, offers a natural barrier to noise, yields advantageous microclimates and fundamental ecological systems. Trees, together with shrubs, contribute to property values of residential and commercial establishments, and preserve and enhance the natural beauty and appearance of the Village and its historic, non-urban character.


In 2012, Irvington updated the tree preservation chapter of its Village code. It codified the Tree Preservation Commission.  In 2022, the Village launched the Irvington Community Forest Management Plan providing even more direction to improve the Village's urban forest management efforts.  


The Tree Preservation Commission was established to protect and preserve trees within the Village, whether municipal, commercial or residential, and to ensure review, regulation and inspection of any activity affecting trees that might adversely affect the health, safety and general welfare of the community.  The activities of the Tree Commission, including review and approval of tree permits, outlining municipal tree policies and providing tree education, help the Village and its residents to better serve as stewards of our air, water, land and living resources.


A related web resource on Tree Stewardship summarizes many of the local efforts to preserve, improve and enjoy our forests, including updating a notable trail system in Irvington Wood Park, a long-term ecological research program on forest health and dynamics (engaging K-12 students) and other significant stewardship projects in Irvington Woods and O'Hara Nature Center. 


See an overview of Irvington's Local Forestry Program created for Climate Smart Communities here.

Tree City USA

Irvington has been a designated Tree City since 1985, meeting standards set by the Arbor Day Foundation such as having a Tree Preservation Commission and establishing Tree Care Ordinances and a tree planting program and budget. The committee also offers  tree care guidance.  Learn more about Tree Cities here.

In 2024, Irvington's Climate Smart Communtiies task force assembled a Local Forestry Documentation, including a tree canopy and street tree inventory. 

Irvington tree canopy height from 2 m (green) to 50 m (red).

Village of Irvington historic district tree canopy height from 2 m (green) to 36 m (red).

Location of heritage trees in the Village of Irvington showing species

Tree Canopy Inventory

Tree canopy height was calculated from NYS LIDAR data from 2019 (downloaded from https://orthos.dhses.ny.gov). The LIDAR data was first used to make a digital elevation map (DEM) at 25 cm resolution from the ground return points. The DEM was subtracted from the LIDAR first return points to make a digital height map. Points were then filtered by NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) > 0.2 calculated from 60 cm USDA NAIP data (https://naip-usdaonline.hub.arcgis.com). This removes buildings and roads, which have low NDVI values. The data was finally filtered to remove heights < 2 m to remove surface vegetation.


The tree canopy height from this process for the Village of Irvington is shown in the image below. There is very high canopy coverage in the eastern part of the Village in Irvington Woods Park. There is a further area of high canopy coverage around Halsey Pond (center near bottom of figure). The overall tree canopy coverage for Irvington is very good at 54%. 


The mean canopy height is 14.7 m (48 feet). There is a notable tail in the distribution of canopy heights above 30 m (98 feet) with some canopy above 40 m (131 feet). These points come from very tall tulip poplars particularly near Saw Mill Parkway in the far east of the Village.


The tree canopy coverage in the historic downtown district (inside the blue contour in Figure 3) is much lower at only 22%. This is where a substantial fraction of Irvington’s population lives, so they do not directly benefit from the mitigating impact of the extensive tree cover further east, particularly from shade reducing temperatures on hot summer days. 


Out of the 304 trees measured, the most common species were Norway maples (54), flowering cherry (46), flowering pear (27). The most common native species were linden (19), red maple (16), pin oak (13). It is intended in the future to plant nearly exclusively native trees. 


The Village of Irvington is home to many magnificent trees. Around 50 trees have been identified as particularly fine specimens and have been put on a heritage tree list. 


See the full report here.


The Irvington Woods

Irvington is lucky to have the Irvington Woods, home to the O’Hara Nature Center with educational programming and demonstration gardens, the Peter K. Oley Trail Network within 259 acres of woodland, and the Irvington Reservoir. Learn more at TheIrvingtonWoods.org

For the Irvington Woods Risk Tree Inventory and Community Forest Management Plan Click here. 

Stewardship and Education

ONC Community-Based Programming Overview—Overview of the community land stewardship programming from K-12th Grade at the O'Hara Nature Center

The Parks Department's CJ Reilly has led numerous significant stewardship projects in the Irvington Woods and O'Hara Nature Center. 

Old Growth Forest

A potentially 318+-year-old White oak has been discovered in the Irvington Woods Park. Our O'Hara Nature Center's Director of Education and Head of Grounds and Operations, CJ Reilly, works with high school students to core trees and analyze them. Their research has revealed that we have a lot of White oaks between the ages of 170+ and 244+ years old. In other words, we have old-growth trees in Southern Westchester, which is rare given all the land loss due to farming during the 1600s - 1800s and housing and municipal development during the 1900s - 2000s, so it's quite a gem.

New Trail System

With the support of the Irvington Woods Committee, the Village of Irvington, the Irvington Recreation and Parks Department, the Irvington School District, the Irvington community, and volunteers, the Peter Olay Trailways system overhauled in put into place in the summer of 2022.

You can find the new Trail Map here  or scroll below. 

Hermit's Wetland

“The Hermit Rd. swamp can provide opportunities for nature-oriented passive recreation and is a good site for school nature studies. The entire course of Barney Brook from this swamp to the reservoir is rich in natural beauty and is a valuable natural resource for the Village of Irvington.” Overview Wetland Report


If you have an iNaturalist account you can see all the observations under the project "Irvington Woods Park - Hermit's Wetland” We have a significant colony of American featherfoil. This is an endangered species in NY state, the US forest service describe it as "a very beautiful and extraordinarily interesting aquatic wildflower” (https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/hottonia_inflata.shtml)

New Trail Map - click to expand

Tree Preservation Commission

The village Tree Commission has been established to protect and preserve trees within the Village, whether municipal, commercial or residential, and to ensure review, regulation and inspection of any activity affecting trees that might adversely affect the health, safety and general welfare of the community. 


The activities of the Tree Commission through review and approval of tree permits, outlining municipal tree policies and providing tree education, help the village and its residents to better serve as stewards of our air, water, land and living resources. It is our joint obligation to protect the environment for the use of this and future generations.

Trees for Tribs

Over the years the Village of Irvington has participated in the NYS DEC's Trees for Tribs program, which has supplied bare-root trees and shrubs which have been planted in several places in the Irvington Woods, including above the reservoir. The Trees for Tribs program's goal "is to plant trees and shrubs along streams to create a forested riparian (streamside) buffer that helps decrease erosion, reduce flooding damage, improve wildlife and stream habitat, and protect water quality."

Learn more with the DEC NY here.