'Love Your Street Tree Day' To Hit Upper West Side This Weekend

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Upper West Siders will take to the streets Sunday to restore and clean their block's tree beds. In a city with sparse vegetation, street trees provide a respite for Upper West Siders craving some interaction with nature in their busy lives.

"Love Your Street Tree Day" formerly known as just "Love Your Tree Day," will kick off at noon Sunday at The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers garden on Amsterdam Avenue and West 84th Street, according to a press release. At the school, neighborhood residents can pick up a tree care toolkit to restore tree beds on their block using mulch and compost. The school will also provide tree bed care demonstrations.

"The Upper West Side has too much litter, too many rats, and too many tree beds in need of attention," City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal said in a statement. "On Love Your Street Tree Day, we will join together as a community to clean up tree beds and sidewalks, improve soil health with mulch and compost, and place 'curb your dog' signs in tree beds as a reminder to protect these tiny green spaces that dot our streets."

Volunteers and local high school students will also take place in a "trash audit" of the neighborhood during a sweep to clean up litter from sidewalks and tree beds. The results of the audit will be used to come up with solutions for keeping Upper West Side streets cleaner in the future, according to a press release.

Various city agencies are getting involved in the third-annual event hosted by the West 80's Neighborhood Association. The mulch and compost for tree beds is being donated by the Parks Department and the trash audit will be assisted by the Department of Sanitation.

"In our efforts to create and maintain thriving parks and public spaces for New Yorkers across the five boroughs, we are happy to celebrate the Third Annual Love Your Street Tree Day," Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver said in a statement. "This initiative is about caring for and protecting our communities, and we are happy to be a part of that."

Photo by Ron Coleman via Flickr/Creative Commons