On Trees

While the large branch on E9th street that blocked the sidewalk for close to two months has been cleared, finally, the future does not look good for those of us who walk, park or live under trees in this city. A Walk in the Park brings to our attention a meeting at city hall that was written up by DNAInfo a few weeks back.

According to the writeup, serious budget cuts (set to $20 million and 400 employees) put residents at even more risk of serious injury and death because of falling tree limbs:  "In the same period that the number of people struck by tree limbs seems to have risen dramatically in New York, the number of trees the department pruned through its block program dropped more than 60 percent — from 79,658 last year to 29,782 in 2010 — according to the most recent mayor’s management report.

The number of trees maintained by city workers is also likely to fall more in the coming year as the department budget is set to shrink by nearly $20 million, from $294 million in 2010 to $276 million in 2011. Full-time maintenance and operations will also drop from 2,600 people to 2,200."

Parks Department's response - "removing dead or dying trees within 30 days of reports and making sure that every tree is pruned each decade."

That sure does not sound good for those of us here with large trees on our blocks. Kind of ironic that the god news is that most of the trees in Kensington were planted this year and are unlikely to do property damage for a while.  Full story on the meeting here.