A Midtown street will get a makeover when the city plants 60 new trees. The project is the latest effort to improve and expand Kingston’s “urban canopy,” both to beautify the streets and help combat rising temperatures due to climate change.

The project, which is expected to start on Oct. 15 and wrap up in mid-November, includes planting 60 new trees on Elmendorf Street between Broadway and Flatbush Avenue as well as intersecting blocks of Ten Broeck Avenue, Bruyn Avenue and Smith Avenue. Crews are already at work removing seven dead or diseased trees and two stumps from the work zone. The new trees will be 8-12 feet high and consist of native species chosen by the city’s urban forester including blackgum, hackberry and ironwood.

\In a statement announcing the project, Urban Forester Brent Knepper said the project would provide badly needed shade and help prevent the “heat island” effect where blacktop streets and driveways absorb heat during the day and slowly release it after sundown, causing higher nighttime temperatures. Knepper said that during hot weather temperatures on Elmendorf Street were 12-15 degrees higher than other parts of the city with mature street trees to provide shade.

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This project will bring street trees back to Elmendorf Street and the neighboring blocks at a time when summer cooling is critical,” said Knepper in a statement. Kingston has gone through three heat waves this year, with air temperatures climbing to 103 degrees for multiple days in a row, and pavement temperatures exceeded 150 degrees. I’m thankful the U.S. Forest Service and the [state] Department of Environmental Conservation have helped provide the resources needed to turn a street with old stumps into one with new shade.”

In recent years the Noble administration has made planting new street trees a cornerstone of the city’s climate resilience efforts. In 2024 the city received a grant of $732,374 through the U.S. Forest Service to hire an urban forester and support a goal of planting 1,000 new trees by 2030. In 2025 another grant, this one through the state Department of Environmental Conservation and totaling $1.6 million, has allowed the city to expand the program. Noble’s pro-tree agenda suffered a setback earlier this year when the Common Council, following strong public opposition, rejected proposed legislation that would have given the city jurisdiction over some trees on private property and forced owners to pay steep fees for removing them.