Plan To Cover East Village, LES With Tree Canopy Wins Backing

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — A Lower East Sider is kick-starting an initiative to push for funding to fill empty tree pits across the Lower East Side, Chinatown and the East Village.

Wendy Brawer, who has lived on Rivington St. for three decades, first started this specific street trees effort last October, asking herself, "What is something that is a benefit to all?"

Brawer's LES "Community Canopy" concept is inspired by the worsening impacts of climate change as well as the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, which will protect the east side from coastal flooding but also require hundreds of trees to be removed from East River Park during its closure in order to raise the park.

Brawer hopes a community-based street tree program can be a way to increase community resiliency and mitigate at least some of the impacts.

"It's a concrete climate mitigation action," Brawer said.

The Parks Department street tree map says the East Village, Lower East Side, and Chinatown gain $600,000 of annual benefits — whether from stormwater reduction, energy conservation, or carbon dioxide emission reductions — from around 5,000 trees across the neighborhoods.

Brawer has been involved with many longterm projects in the neighborhood, but this one, she says, could be more quickly attainable.

"Let's start improving right in front of our own homes and do it in a way that's beneficial on multiple levels," said Brawer, who also founded Green Map System, a sustainability map-making non-profit and a member of Siempre Verde Community Garden. "I feel the tree project is something we can start immediately."

Brawer doesn't intend to start any new groups in the neighborhood — there are plenty with similar missions as hers. She said the community could seek funds from elected officials, philanthropic entities, or developers.

A major city effort to plant trees, Million Trees NYC project, launched in 2007 under the Bloomberg administration, which was completed in 2015, two years ahead of schedule, the New York Times reported at the time.

The Parks Department says property owners can technically request a street tree to be planted or plant one themselves with a specific permit.

But community members at a recent Community Board 3 meeting raised concerns that any efforts to plant more trees should carefully consider who will be responsible for watering and taking care of the trees as well as what species would be planted. One board member recalled when trees limbs buckled at the weight of snow during last November's icy, chaotic mess, blocking several streets.

Community Board 3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee voted in support of the concept last Thurs., Feb. 14. The full board will vote on the committee's resolution next Tues., Feb. 26.

"I don't know exactly where it will lead, but I think we really need to act soon," Brawer said. "This is an important part of our community and a way we can make a real difference around climate change."

Image credit: Maria Cormack-Pitts/Patch Image caption: Tompkins Square Park