Thursday, April 6, 2017

Flushing High School has some poorly installed trees

The QC passed by Flushing High a few days ago and noticed the street trees there were not looking well.
So we contacted a tree expert.
"Greetings.

These Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) street trees have been in declining health for well over a decade. For the years that they've resided here they should be healthy and of incredible size but they are not.

Many factors may be behind their poor health but I suspect that the tree health problems started at the time of installation by Parks as either inferior tree stock from the tree nursery (trees that we refer to as culls b/c the Forester did not bother to inspect the trees for quality in advance of their arrival to the job site), or an improper placement into the planting hole by the landscape contractors.

Improper installation? How can that be?

There's far more of the tree installation process than one imagines. We take tree planting for granted and its goes far beyond just simply digging a hole and rolling in the tree. Yet throughout the 7 year PLaNYC Million Tree program, it was observed that Parks Forestry contractors repeatedly installed thousands of street trees improperly. That is b/c the daily inspections for compliance to the Parks Forestry tree planting specifications would have taken them away from other important tasks. Nothing is more important in the tree installation process than making sure the trees are installed properly. And we as recipients of a NYC tree planting program should demand more accountability on the return of the tree installation investment.
As an aside find attached NYC DPR Tree Map information and the attached pdf of a cypress tree and the benefits that it should provide.

https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/#treeinfo-4141725

https://sma.memberclicks.net/assets/documents/CTs_Jan_Baldcypress.pdf

Just to let you know that the Kissena Park Civic general meeting is scheduled for April 6 7PM at Marys Nativity Parish Center, NWC of Parsons and Jasmine.

Guest speaker will be DEP Green Infrastructure people speaking on the bioswales issues.

Cheers."

- Carsten W. Glaeser

11 comments:

(sarc) said...

"Nothing is more important in the tree installation process than making sure the trees are installed properly."

Perhaps we should contact "Mother Nature", she installs trees each day in forrests and fields, all over this good green earth...

Anonymous said...

The city response will be to cut down all the trees, leaving only stumps, and not replace them, ever.

I only ever report a tree if it looks 100% dead in summer.

Anonymous said...

hey sarc, i bet mother nature will do some great pruning & natural house cleaning in the next storm

Anonymous said...

Those trees have been there for the better part of a century. What is killing them is the pollution of Flushing, pure and simple. Its a toxic slum like the cities in China.

As to the older trees I am still at amazement that a few years back they planted all those trees and did nothing to open up the sidewalk to the older trees - that are now dying. Called those snowflake groups all excited on the new tree plantings and told them the problem.

They shrugged. It was not on the talking point sheet that was given them.

So one old dead tree equals 20? new ones.

Julie B. said...

Not that I don't care about the trees, but they are the least of Flushing HS' problems

Anonymous said...

What is killing them is the pollution of Flushing, pure and simple. Its a toxic slum like the cities in China.


Absolutely. We have a solution, no need for the high school, they should build more condos, skyscrapers instead to accomodate more of China's population.

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg had those trees planted but no one took care of them, did not water them and they died. No account was taken regarding the location or species planted. Some trees don't like a lot of wind and salt water.

ron s said...

"Perhaps we should contact "Mother Nature", she installs trees each day in forrests and fields, all over this good green earth.."

Hate to point out an error in your logic, but Mother Nature does not plant partially grown trees like those found in a nursery and then transplant them to city streets. Mother Nature does OK with seeds, dropping thousands so that one may grow. Doesn't work that way for transplanting street trees. They need to be planted carefully and taken care of at least initially.

Anonymous said...

Planting trees adequately is pretty hard to screw up regardless if this well-meaning but melodramatic claim about it. Look it up on any university agricultural extension "how to". Picking a proper site for the species is actually the most important part, not the planting. If you get that right, maintenance should not really be that hard either for Parks.

Anonymous said...

Street trees have it tough and they have an average of about 7 years life expectancy. More should be done either by Park's Dept. or other groups and just local people going around helping trees that are in need.
Something is wrong when trees are not pruned or dead trees and stumps are not removed or newly planted trees don't get cared for and die.The waiting time for any of these things can be years.
I am waiting a year now to try and get the city to expand the tree pit in front of my house. The tree was planted 40 years ago and then the tree pit were smaller. Now it is breaking the sidewalk and curb.When I called Park's Dept. they said the crack had to be at least 1/2" which it is.They also said the list is very long for sidewalk repairs and right now there were no funds available.This means I can get fined by the city and responsible for paying to have my sidewalk fixed because of a tree the city planted. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

Notice a difference between hipsters areas of the outer boros and Asianized ones. Hipsters tend to be friendly while Asians aren't. What do expect with Asians they just ruin places. The other part is hipsters come and go while Asians stay and multiply.