The reasons the Parks Department cannot care for street trees. Laid out for you in this article.
Lack Of Care For Street Trees
The Reasons: Follow, The Lack Of Money, Commitment, Transparency, And Training
In this article, I researched the Parks Department websites with two questions in mind. Why aren’t these people doing their job? And what is this almighty classification that they risk people’s lives on?
What I found is in the following paragraphs. I have formed my opinion, now it’s up to you.
The following information is from a website called Trees Are Good. This website has interesting and important information on the care of landscape trees. It does not go into the maintenance of street trees. It does show that landscape trees need a “higher level of care” than forest trees.
Expanding from that premise. Street trees need a higher level of care than park trees.
As they are two steps removed from the forest trees. And one step from the park trees.
Click on the title or link below to read the full article. Or copy/paste the link into your browser.
Trees Are Good Website
Excerpt
Pruning is the most common tree maintenance procedure. Unlike forest trees, landscape trees need a higher level of care to maintain structural integrity and aesthetics. Pruning must be done with an understanding of tree biology because improper pruning can create lasting damage or shorten the tree’s life.
Each cut can potentially change the growth of the tree; therefore, it is important to remember that no branch should be cut without a reason. Some common reasons for pruning include, removal of dead branches to improve form and increase safety, to increase light and air penetration for plants below the tree’s crown, or corrective and preventative measures.
End of Excerpts
There is a difference between the level of care trees in a park environment receive versus the level of care street trees receive.
The fact that the Parks Department segregates the trees in this manner shows that a division already exists. But there is more. Read on.
The following is from NYC. The Parks Department Website Section on Tree Pruning.
Tree Pruning
https://www.nycgovparks.org/trees/tree-care/maintenance
Excerpt
NYC Parks conducts routine pruning every year on a portion of city trees in each community board in order to keep our mature trees healthy.
End Of Excerpt
Question: When was the last pruning for Wyona Street Bet New Lots and Hegeman?
Answer: I was unable to locate any data on this question.
Of interest is the fact that the Pruning map shows lots of pruning north of Liberty Ave. But noting south of Liberty Avenue.
See the Pruning Map https://www.nycgovparks.org/services/forestry/tree-pruning
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Lack Of Transparency
Tree Risk Management
https://www.nycgovparks.org/services/forestry/risk-management
The following is from the Park Department website, citing Risk Management for Trees.
It cites standards from the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Excerpt
Tree Risk Management Enhances Public Safety and Urban Forest Health
On July 1, 2017, we launched a pilot program to better evaluate our trees in keeping with the latest industry standards set by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Through applying our professional expertise in risk management, we’ll address the conditions that present the highest risk to public safety and property before other work.
End of Excerpt
Street Trees Classification Checking The Source
I checked, or at least tried to check, the standards on the websites for each entity. The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) had standards for work safety and the safe pruning of trees.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) website was of no help in finding standards particular to trees.
Or at least I could not locate them. ANSI produces standards for an array of items. I needed to know more about what I was looking for to verify the standards the Parks Department is adhering to.
Better yet, the Parks Department could be transparent and supply the standards list and its source to the public upon demand.
That request was made to the liaison correspondence person. Instead, we got stonewalled.
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Lack Of Money
Fiscal 2023
The following is a report on how the Parks Department did in Fiscal 2023. Reading the report, I found that little is said about street trees. And that the main concern of the Parks Department is parks. Imagine my lack of surprise.
So, what is it going to take for the Parks Department, the City of New York, and all other concerned entities to realize that there needs to be a department dedicated to Street Trees and not parks?
Click on the title or link below to read the full article. Or copy/paste the link into your browser.
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION
Susan M. Donoghue, Commissioner
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/pmmr2023/dpr.pdf
Excerpts
- DPR pruned 4,966 street trees via the block pruning program in the first four months of Fiscal 2023, a 73 percent decrease from the same period in Fiscal 2022. This is due to delayed registration of pruning contracts, particularly in Brooklyn and Queens. Block pruning in Brooklyn and Queens was suspended in Fiscal 2022 due to unforeseen legal matters with the pruning contractor, however, work in Queens has since resumed.
- Tree inspections, which includes inspections by DPR staff and consultants, are down 53 percent in the first four months of Fiscal 2023 compared to the same period in Fiscal 2022, due to a delayed design contract. In Fiscal 2022, there were 40,032 inspections conducted by design consultants, compared to just 7,852 in Fiscal 2023. In-house inspections by DPR staff remained relatively constant, at 19,835 in Fiscal 2022 versus 20,938 in Fiscal 2023.
- DPR planted 2,748 trees in first four months of Fiscal 2023 down from 5,075 in the same period in Fiscal 2022. Tree planting on City streets, in landscaped and natural areas of parks fluctuate in the four-month reporting period due to the timing of DPR planting season, delivery of trees from nurseries, weather, and the timeline of ongoing forest restoration contracts.
End Of Excerpts
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City And State New York Report
The following are multiple excerpts from City And State New York. They show the lack of funding for the Parks Department. And the continued failure of the mayor’s office to address the increasing danger of hanging and falling branches.
Of note is the fact that the funding is targeted at park trees and not street trees.
Once again, it shows that street trees are treated as a footnote by the Parks Department and the Mayor’s Office.
Click on the title or link below to read the full article. Or copy/paste the link into your browser.
City And State New York
Multiple Excerpts
- Mayor Eric Adams proposed a fiscal year 2024 Parks Department budget of $610.4 million, which is nearly $40 million less than the department is projected to spend this fiscal year, potentially putting even further strain on pruning backlogs.
- The mayor again seems on track to fall short of his campaign promise to designate 1% of the city budget to parks. The .06% designated in the current proposal is minimal in comparison to many other American cities, according to the advocacy group New Yorkers for Parks.
- Tree pruning is the process of removing sick, hanging or otherwise damaged branches from trees. It’s done for the safety of people and infrastructure near the tree that could be harmed if the branches fell off naturally.
- It might seem that cutting some branches here and there is a small feat. It’s not.
- “It can be a very serious matter when it comes to trees that pose risk, whether they’re dead trees or live trees that have dead broken limbs, things that can fall,” Arbor Day Foundation Urban Forestry Program Manager Pete Smith said. “So we need to be monitoring and reviewing these trees regularly.”
- Last year, The City reported that a major tree–pruning contractor was put under Department of Investigation monitoring after being charged with insurance fraud. The indictment of the company disrupted pruning in Brooklyn and Queens for months, Brooklyn Paper reported. Another contractor was terminated due to poor performance.
End Of Excerpts
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Lack Of Training
Bad Policies. Insurance Fraud. Lead to Lack of Care.
The following are excerpts from a 2022 article about the drop-off of care for street trees because of the Parks Department’s policy of contracting out the work.
And how that policy blew up in their faces. A problem that occurred in 2022 still affects the care of trees in 2024. And will probably continue for many years to come.
Especially since the Parks department is untrained in the routine maintenance of trees.
And, it still bids out contracts to contractors to do their work.
Click on the title or link below to read the full article. Or copy/paste the link into your browser.
Brooklyn Paper
Tree pruning in Brooklyn and Queens axed since last year due to alleged insurance scam
https://www.brooklynpaper.com/tree-pruning-in-brooklyn-and-queens-axed-insurance-scam
Posted on September 20, 2022
/https://www.brooklynpaper.com/tree-pruning-in-brooklyn-and-queens-axed-insurance-scam/
Multiple Excerpts
Municipal tree pruning has been suspended for the past year in Brooklyn and Queens because the city dropped its contractor following its principals’ indictment in a massive insurance scam, a Parks Department spokesperson confirmed to Brooklyn Paper.
The report notes on page 144, in the Parks Department section, that while funding for tree pruning had been restored in Fiscal Year 2022 following COVID-era cuts, the program still was axed owing to “unforeseen legal issues with pruning contractors,” which the city intends to resolve this Fiscal Year.
That means the city cannot properly maintain its tree canopy in its two largest and most populous boroughs. Routine pruning, where dead, diseased, or broken branches are removed, is necessary to maintain a tree’s health and stability, and a preventive measure to mitigate the risk of partial or total collapse.
In the meantime, the city suspended work on the Dragonettis’ contract and have not rebid on it as the contract was already awarded to the Dragonettis, and thus cannot be terminated and rebid to another firm, said Parks Department spokesperson Crystal Howard, leaving the city stumped on what to do. She noted that the city’s emergency crews do not have training nor equipment for routine maintenance.
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Lack Of Commitment
Paul Kerzner, of the Ridgewood Property Owners & Civic Association, argues that even before the suspension, the city had long neglected its ability to plant street trees. He’s hopeful that the Adams administration will consider arboreal matters a higher priority than past leaders.
“Unfortunately the City of New York treats street trees as a footnote,” Kerzner said. “If they treated street trees as part of the capital infrastructure of the city of New York, they would be planting them on a regular basis.”
End of Excerpts
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Opinion
The Parks Department, in its present form, is unable to maintain street trees. Even if the department had all the money it needed.
It would put most of it towards park environment trees, not street trees.
The Parks Department’s policy of contracting out tree maintenance must go. The only way Parks Department personnel will develop care for street trees is to take care of them. And not treat the trees as a footnote.
The one sure way to ensure the care and maintenance of street trees is the creation of a department dedicated to these trees. And to supply that department with the funds, equipment, personnel, and training to get the job done correctly.
To see links to all the articles, click here to go to the Navigation Page. There you will find links to all the articles in this series.
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