COVID can’t slow the prolific Maya Lin down. Ghost Forest, the artist and architect’s resurrection of dead trees from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, was supposed to have gone up for public display in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park in the spring of 2020. That, of course, didn’t happen due to the pandemic, but the installation is now scheduled to go on display from May 10 through November 14 alongside accompanying programming that will run just as long.

Ghost Forest will erect a forest of dead Atlantic white cedar trees on the park’s lawn, where the bare trunks and branches will stand in stark contrast with the leafy living trees of Madison Square Park (they should be filled out by the time Ghost Forest opens). The show is named after the phenomena of when saltwater infiltration or an extreme weather event kills vast swaths of forests but leaves the dead trees behind unscathed, where they remain until felled. Lin worked with the Madison Square Park Conservancy to source the 40-to-45-foot-tall trees, which were removed from the Pine Barrens as part of a land regeneration project. Accordingly, Ghost Forest is intended as a poignant and clear visual metaphor for habitat loss and the ravages of climate change.

“Ghost Forest presents two striking alternatives within the context of Madison Square Park— the ashen trees standing in contrast to the vibrancy of the park,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, deputy director and Martin Friedman Chief Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy, in a press release. “Maya’s installation underscores the concept of transience and fragility in the natural world and stands as a grave reminder of the consequences of inaction to the climate crisis and poor land-use practices. Within a minimal visual language of austerity and starkness, Maya brings her role as an environmental activist and her vision as an artist to this work.”

The “forest” will be open to the public in the park for the duration of the installation’s run, but the accompanying virtual and in-real-life events are timed affairs. Those include:

• A soundscape at the installation, accessible beginning May 11. By scanning a QR code on their phone, visitors can listen to the sounds of extinct and endangered animals once native to New York City thanks to a collaboration between the conservancy and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The samples are drawn from the Macaulay Library sound archive of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the common, scientific, and name in the Southern Unami language from the Lenape Talking Dictionary website will be given for each animal. Some species will also have their names recited in  Munsee (Lunaapeew), which was spoken by the native inhabitants of Manhattan.
• From September through November, Fotografiska New York will host an exhibition containing Lin’s process sketches and photos of Ghost Forest during and after installation.
• In September and October, Lin and the Natural Areas Conservancy and Madison Square Park Conservancy will oversee the planting of 1,000 trees and shrubs at parks across New York City, and volunteers are encouraged to join.

There will also be conservation-minded talks, Zoom panels, and music in the park; all of the upcoming events can be found on the Madison Square Park website.