Tending Our Urban Forest
You can fill in the holes in our urban forest and help nurture our mature trees.
Our Forest Shelters Us
The former chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals, Judith Kaye, writes of the beginning of public street tree planting, at the dawn of the twentieth century, "Public support was mixed. Manhattanites complained that the trees obscured light, air and views, and even the Parks Department grumbled that Manhattan soil conditions were less than ideal for tree plantings. Brooklyn, by contrast, having been primarily farmland through the turn of the century welcomed the trees. When the Parks Department established a trust fund for property owners to plant trees, thousands of Brooklynites responded. The borough’s early receptiveness to the plantings is evident in the many verdant blocks we see there today."
A lacework of shadows covers our sidewalks, and our skies are filigreed by leaves. Shade cools our summers and the solidity of our facades is softened by undulating flowers and leaves. We breathe better air, air better for the planet because our trees help control the carbon dioxide we create. (Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent gas contributing to global warming.) As trees create their food through photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.
Holes in Our Forest
Fort Greene and Clinton Hill have 3,800 mature trees along their streets. Surprisingly, Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill volunteers found that we could add 1,200 more if all of our streets were planted according the rules of the Department of Parks. Volunteers who surveyed the entire neighborhood discovered two kinds of sites for new trees. Along our tree-lined core streets, one in six tree pits is empty—showing the high mortality of urban street trees. In contrast to the core, the peripheral blocks have few trees. The generally treeless blocks, along Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, have levels of air pollution among the highest in the city and are the home of our relatively poorer neighbors. Most of our Housing Authority buildings are located along our neighborhood’s edges. Our places most in need of trees have the least.
Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill has been asking the Department of Parks and our representatives to fill the holes in our forest. By the end of 2008, 240 trees were planted; the new median on Carlton Avenue, between Myrtle and Park, was modified to include trees; and three tiny parks have been designed to supplant the striped roadbed and plastic bollards at Seven Corners (Fulton, Hanson, South Oxford and Greene).
Students at P.S. 46, on Clermont Avenue, participated in a tree project designed by Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill. They learned about how trees purify the air; measured the blocks around the school to identify sites for trees according to the Parks Department’s rules; presented their findings to city officials and discussed the process for funding tree plantings; and learned about how tees grow and stay healthy. The students saw forty trees planted in the sites they identified, and for many years can point to the improvement they made to our neighborhood.
In May 2008, 36 Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill volunteers had fun planting 24 linden trees donated by Andy and John Schictel and the Parks Department. Tools were donated by The Home Depot, Marcus Attorneys, Steve Hurwitz of GFI Capital provided staging and storage at 470 Vanderbilt.
But progress seems to have stopped. Despite the City’s commitment to plant One Million Trees, large plantings are occurring elsewhere, and even our high priority peripheral blocks are being ignored. Speak up!
Caring for our Mature Trees
Most of our mature trees are being strangled. Their tree pits that are too small for their roots and adequate rain cannot seep into the soil. The trees are fighting back by pushing up our sidewalk slabs, calling for our attention by tripping us. Green Fort Green & Clinton Hill is responding.
Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill volunteers have designed a project to expand 1,750 tree pits. Please do help. With city funding we will:
• Employ a crew of our neighbors for a year.Do it: A couple of hours will make a big difference. Contact Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill to:
• Help survey the neighborhood to identify the tree pits to expand