How Stapling a Flyer to a Tree is Like Stapling One to Your Skin

Last week a neighbor noticed flyers plastered all around Ditmas Ave from about East 18th to East 16th Streets, and was particularly disturbed by how they'd been stapled into our decades-old trees. While posting flyers to trees (and many other places) is illegal, it's also damaging, as Matthew Wells, Director of Tree Preservation at the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, explained to me.

"It's definitely going to damage the trees, particularly thin-barked trees like beech, cherry, London plane," said Wells. "And while a tree like an elm isn't going to be too bothered by a couple of small staples going into it, ultimately for all trees I wouldn't recommend it."

There are two problems with puncturing a tree in this way: first, the physical damage of staples being punched into the tree's tissues causes damage to its internal system of nutrient delivery between the leaves to the roots; second, the hole in the bark can cause damage from the outside, increasing the chance of some kind of pathogen getting inside and causing infection, for instance.

Wells compared the bark of a tree to your skin--it's a protective layer for all the important stuff housed inside. If you get a hole in your skin, bad things can happen, and the same goes for a tree that gets a hole in its bark.

Though it might take lots of staples to ultimately result in the death of a tree, if for some reason you must post signs to a tree--the NYPD and DOT occasionally have no other option, for example--just avoid using staples or nails. Wells recommends using tape, and not going all the way around the tree with it--you don't want to potentially strangle the tree, either.

"Any damage, even minor, can potentially be catastrophic," he said.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but if you have flyers to hang, consider the alternatives: many businesses have bulletin boards, or might allow you to post something in their window if you ask; and/or head online and use something like our listings section. Just please don't do anything that might kill our awesome trees.