From the Times Ledger:
Even before Hurricane Sandy, Glen Oaks Village President Bob Friedrich said his group maintained a running list of ailing trees in his part of northeast Queens, but to no avail.
According to Friedrich, the Glen Oaks tree-trimming laundry list went virtually unnoticed when presented to the city Parks Department despite warnings about roughly 50 unhealthy trees.
By the time Superstorm Sandy swept through his streets, Friedrich said almost half of the already problematic trees had toppled down from the intense wind and rain.
“Had those trees been pruned, they wouldn’t have come down so easily,” Friedrich said. “The city is basically ignoring the pleas of northeast Queens communities.”
In front of uprooted sidewalk plots where trees once stood and homes with missing roof shingles, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) joined civic leaders and homeowners in Floral Park last Thursday to blast the Parks Department for neglecting homeowners’ requests and failing to maintain its trees.
“One of the biggest problems residents had to deal with in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was downed trees,” Avella said. “It is extremely unfortunate that many of the downed trees that either fell on homes or blocked streets are the same trees that constituents have been calling on the city to remove for years.”
Avella said a changing climate has forced the city’s hand in committing to new policies involving tree damage, stump removal and the placement of new trees. The senator had held a news conference on the subject in July 2011 and said things have not gotten any better this year.
To expedite progress, Avella said he developed his own plan, which included calling on the formation of a tree policy review committee to evaluate tree maintenance and to put an immediate temporary halt to the city’s Million Tree Planting program until new rules and procedures are installed.
“This just further illustrates what I have been saying for years as a former City Council member and now state senator — the city needs to do a far better job at maintaining the trees that are already planted before planting a million more,” Avella said. “Going forward, there needs to be a concrete plan in place to address this serious problem.”
Avella said the city was rushing to fulfill its million trees commitment without proper planning, which has resulted in trees being planted in inappropriate or poor locations.
11 comments:
Avella is 100% correct.
Basic pruning (trimming the sail out) would have saved over 1/2 of them trees that came down. No doubt about it.
Hundreds of $$ millions in busted power lines, damage, suffering could have been prevented for a fraction of what was spent on cleanup alone.
-Joe
After any kind of storm, dealing with fallen trees is a headache. If you do not take care of the trees in your locality, especially the ones which are damaged already, then you may have to spend a lot of time later on to take care of these trees, which have fallen down.
I also agree with the writer that if these trees were dealt with earlier, then much lesser damage would have taken place.
Bob Friedrich is generally out of his trees...but he's right on this one!
Tony's right again! NYC does not take care of IT'S street trees. Queen's residents have to pay to have the trees in front of their properties on NYC land pruned. NYC will not do it and it creates a public safety hazard. Good work Tony!
These new Queen's residents are more likely to poison trees in front of their homes then pay $$ to have them pruned.
When the tree dies the landlord then puts the city on notice for a free emergency cut down or does it himself.
If a landlord does that in Manhattan they get free handcuffs. Why is it a landlord can get away with crap in Queens, Its still part of NYC last I checked isn't it ?
The City has failed for years to maintain and keep healthy the hundreds of trees along the Cross Island Parkway in Bayside. As a result, there are hundreds of trees that need to be cutdown and removed. Some of the trees are huge. I guess the City will wait until a disaster happens before they decide that they need to do something about the situation.
In the summer, mosquitos infest the parkway surrounding areas.
"We no like tree", said one Korean homeowner, while she was finishing the job of "girdling" a New York City owned curb tree.
My friend and I saved it by applying roofing cement around the 1/2" deep furrow she'd cut around the trunk.
I then reported her!
If the tree had died she faced about a $2,000 fine.
Today that Pin Oak stands tall and proud.
The homeowner has since moved away.
I no like Korean tree murderers!
The city should prune our existing trees and maintain the tree pits not to mention remove the thousands of tree stumps that dot our neighborhoods. Let's not plant new trees unless we first address our existing ones!
Bloomberg prefers planting 1 million new saplings, instead of caring for the fine established specimens.
Until Mike gets pruned from office, we'll continue getting "lumbered"!
Proper maintenance of trees can be vital when they have to face storms such as Sandy. Maybe if these trees had been taken care of earlier, the impact would have been less.
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