Feed the Tree

Until this past summer, I had never thought much about the trees along my neighborhood sidewalk. However, during the many months of heat we experienced in Brooklyn, one of my friends who works with the city parks told me to water the tree out in front of our building. She said that ‘trees get stressed’ in harsh environments, like when water is low, and heat is high, and pollutants hang heavy in the air… all of which were present in spades last summer. Add to that the fact that trees get urinated on (and on my block, it’s not just dogs that are perpetrators) and suffer damaging winds (tornadoes in Brooklyn? Yup!), and I realized that the life of a street tree seems pretty rough.

And now, with all the wind and heavy snow this winter has brought, it seems like each time I walk down the street a large limb of one of these trees has come down. It makes me wonder about the health of all these street-side trees, and who really takes care of them?

The NYC gov site provides some pretty no-brainer information for caring for street trees, though the information it gives is more specific to the spring and summer growing seasons. Basic tree care, like watering, weeding, and planting additional perennials, is suggested. Watering the trees, however, poses a specific issue, since I (and most neighbors I know) don’t have outdoor spigots, so there’s no hose to water source attachment available. Some neighbors attach a hose inside their house, and stand on their front stoop (just outside their front door) and try to aim the stream of water 20 feet (or more) to the tree base. Carrying enough water to affect the tree is heavy labor. Fingers crossed that this summer won’t be as harsh as the last.

Additionally, programs like MillionTreesNYC endeavor to plant a million trees, and also provide local businesses and individuals tree ‘stewardship’ opportunities to care for younger and newly-planted trees. Stewardship seems like a great way to protect and provide for trees… but it doesn’t apply to street trees unfortunately, since it seems like those trees are under the purview of the Department of Parks and Recreation. To I guess all we can do as a community is keep an eye on our street trees and be in touch with the folks at Parks and Rec if they seem sick or ill-cared for.

Since I have my own urban garden, this year I plan to plant a tree… but this will only bring my tree count back to even, since last year, I had to cut a tree down because it had gotten sick. Using some of the stewardship information from the MillionTreesNYC website, I hopefully will be better able to care for and monitor the new tree once I get it planted this year. Hopefully, I can even register it as well. Photos in the spring.