Parkway vegetation filters pollutants from the air. Because of their large surface areas, trees contribute to other aspects of air quality: reducing wind speed and absorbing sound. As a greenway between the Hudson River and the land of Manhattan and the Bronx, the parkway effectively moderates the temperature of those boroughs. Vegetated buffers decrease the urban heat-island effect through the integrated coupling of shading, re-radiation, and evapotranspiration carried out by plant leaves.

For a report on the environmental potential of the parkland along the Henry Hudson Parkway, see the 2003 study by the Gaia Institute funded by the J.M. Kaplan Fund, "Stormwater Capture Parks Along the Henry Hudson Parkway. Developing the Endor Community Garden as a Model" (http://www.gaia-inst.org/).