As cities confront rising temperatures, extreme rainfall, and widening environmental inequities, urban forests are increasingly understood as essential climate infrastructure. Yet expanding tree canopy at a citywide scale requires far more than planting trees. It demands new forms of collaboration across government, communities, designers, scientists, property owners, and the organizations responsible for long-term stewardship. Using New York City’s Urban Forest Plan as a point of departure, this conversation will explore what it takes to transform an ambitious citywide vision into action. How can cities identify where investment is needed most? How do data and community knowledge shape more equitable decisions? What happens when the opportunities for expanding canopy extend beyond parks and streets onto schools, housing, institutional campuses, and private property? And critically, who is responsible for caring for this living infrastructure over decades? Bringing together voices from city government, design, environmental advocacy, research, and community stewardship, the panel will examine the urban forest as both a spatial system and a shared civic responsibility. The conversation asks how New York can move from individual tree-planting initiatives toward coordinated, equitable, and resilient urban forest systems.