Monday, March 4, 2019

NYS DOT Kew Gardens Interchange and Urban Forest Denuding in Progress



Greetings Assemblywoman Rozic,

During a drive-by on Friday 1 March 2019 of the Phase 3 NYS DOT Kew Gardens interchange Project  I was absolutely shocked and appalled of what is viewed as the most egregious denuding and wholesale logging operation of recent years in central Queens by NYS DOT of our invaluable urban trees.   The actions of NYS DOT planners and engineers and that of their contractor Halmar is the deliberate elimination from the landscape of hundreds of invaluable large urban trees that have served as a vital buffer between the highly traveled and congested Union Tpke and the Grand Central Parkway (GCP) from the neighboring residents and community- now lost.  More removals of large trees are targeted in forthcoming weeks, eliminating the term "parkway" from the GCP.  I am sure you find this action by DOT similarly shocking.  And you should be shocked, if for anything but for the full range of human health and environmental benefits that these trees once provided and with significant ecological and monetary returns delivered for nearly a century.   
 
 What has occurred here is unacceptable especially at a time that so much is known about the urban tree organism as they exist in densely populated urban areas.  Current tree science has revealed that urban trees are vital to healthy living, improve and enhances quality of life, sequesters vast tonnage of carbon annually, captures harmful particulate matter (PM2.5) from vehicle exhaust etc.  That trees directly deliver these benefits to people, the environment and as habitat and to have been ignored by key players from NYS DOT is a testament that nothing has changed about environmental awareness, sustainability and resiliency in the City of NY or by the State for the Boro of Queens. It is business as usual.  
 

It is hard to imagine that an Environmental Impact and Analysis Statement by Region 11 NYS DOT that would have been required for this project for Queens did not set off alarms about the consequences by the loss of such massive volume of important tree canopy. But classic in its methodology and by indifference NYS DOT has fully ignored the importance of our urban trees, and instead has chosen to plundered what is our only important living natural resource across our urban space.  


A kind request that you inquire with NYS DOT for a copy of their project Environmental Impact Statement specific to the wholesale elimination of all of these public trees within the project footprint and pursue a halt to the ongoing denuding so that alternative design plans are able to reflect effective tree preservation rather than wholesale logging.  There is also legitimate purpose to pursue on behalf of the constituency and their "public trees", a restitution of the full value of the individual trees now removed along with the quantifiable dollar amount of the future benefits and services that those trees are no longer able to deliver.    


Bear in mind, that these large veteran trees can never ever be replaced..

Thank you and I await your reply.  

Carsten W Glaeser Ph.D. 



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What possible reason could there be for removing large stately trees from the parkways? They provide a pleasant green relief to the endless concrete and asphalt, they oxygenate the air we breathe and filter impurities from it, they provide valuable habitat and their fallen leaves enrich the soil. Only under DumblASSio could such a travesty occur. Somehow, his real estate masters wanted this and he could only obey their wishes. NYC has the most absolutely stupid traffic engineers I've ever seen. The exit and entrance ramps, the merging lanes--all apparently designed to cause accidents. I've never seen such designs in other states. Now they have removed these beautiful trees. Just another reason to move out of state and leave this fetid mess to the illegals and the AOC idiot crowd.

Anonymous said...

Robert Moses is turning in his grave.

Anonymous said...

The LIRR and Nassau county is doing the same thing.
The contractors removing those trees get like $8000-$10,000 per tree.
The reason is so the bastards that be don't have to pay for professional workers & and keep expensive equipment to do maintenance.
When you have grass or desert landscaping all you need is some minimum wage contractors to sit on lawnmowers.
Remember--New York Sanctuary City will go bankrupt (I repeat WILL go bankrupt) if it cant find a way to save billions over the next few years. Due to the population explosion of immigration all the infrastructure, schools, jails, transportation, sewers, electric is now far beyond capacity, collapsing with no $$ funds in sight.

Anonymous said...

They need the hotspot clear for the new license plate speed-scan cameras. A clear shot of all that at once is like shooting fish in a barrel revenue bonanza.
The old generation 1 current speed & spy camera only nails people on the westbound Union tpke.
These do all cameras are also going in at all the all the tunnel & bridge accesses, major interchanges cant say no more because big brother and the NYC-DOT are watching.

It was once NYSDOT CCTV systems not be used to collect personal identifier information, but that's all being flushed straight down the toilet. I personal think this is all some kind of gateway "Trojan" to a future systemic $$ tariff collecting for when, where & how often you use the roadway.
The city must need money real bad.

Anonymous said...

Moses put them trees in the late 1950s. My grandfather said it was once all bug infested marshy swamps where you can find Indian arrow heads.
Wow, we are getting screwed on our own land worse then those Indians

Ricky said...

So true. And thank you for posting this info. The trees can't be replaced. It's a tragedy brought on by ignorance and half hearted progress. Especially the fact that after ten years of construction the project will not improve the auto congestion in the area. The area between two international airports can never have enough space to remedy this situation. I admire the trees many times more than the road.

Anonymous said...

Sad to say but we live in an urban area and there's lots of vehicles and roads have to be widened and trees and green spaces have to be sacrificed. I remember when the LIE was widened we lost the green spaces that buffered the LIE from the community. We were left with sound barriers with small strips of trees and shrubs. NYSDOT does a bad job on landscaping, there are many places where more trees could be planted. When they finish a project there will be trees planted but they will be small and hopefully grow into large trees. They should be inspecting our highways to see where they can plant trees and improve our environment, after all NYC has some of the busiest roads in the nation and we all have to breathe the air.

TommyR said...

infuriating. i and neighbors have complained about similar zealous clear cutting treatment the lirr tracks behind our homes have received.

Anonymous said...

AOC convinced me to give up using fossil fuels so I'm uploading this comment using wind power but a Chem-Trail got in my eye !

panzer65 said...

Don't forget to throw in a few bio swains to replace all those mature trees that have been eliminated.