The Newport Tree Society was founded in 1987 when concerned citizens recognized the fact that the area’s urban forest was in need and began formal planning and active regeneration efforts via a comprehensive tree protection and management plan. The majority of the city’s finest specimen trees, however, are found on private landscapes. In response to the challenge of restoring a forest under the direct care of thousands of private citizens, the Newport Tree Society outlined a new citizen-centered model for citywide reforestation centered around The Newport Arboretum, New England's first citywide arboretum, established in 2011. 

The arboretum’s reforestation plan celebrates the city’s long history of cultivating, managing and studying trees and plants as well as its remaining core of historic designed landscapes and plant collections, including handwritten records of expansive colonial-era hothouses that held specimens from all over the globe. The Newport Arboretum seeks to remember and reignite a passion to reforest its city with specimen trees planted by private citizens on both public and private property.