Friends, One thing for sure, and I'm sure the mystery will sort itself out - we take our trees seriously in the Big Apple, home of the serious, media conscious tree-hugger! We don't have Sequoias, a London Plane or Ginko will do for us to get passionate!
This was forwarded to me by Don Loggins, of the Liz Christy Garden, a group that has gone to the mat for its trees. (You didn't think we had trees in NYC?) Best wishes, Adam Honigman ARBORCIDE! Parks Dept kills Heights trees - then charges a patsy with murder By Gersh Kuntzman The Brooklyn Papers Five Brooklyn Heights residents in the prime of their lives were murdered in broad daylight last week - and a man who fought to keep them alive has been charged in the crime even though he didn't pull the trigger. The actual killers of two London plane trees and three gingkoes - which stood for decades in front of a large apartment tower at 75 Henry St. - were workers for the New York City Parks Department. The Case of the Terminated Trees reads like a mystery novel - except this isn't a whodunnit, but a whydunnit. The roots of this tall tale go back to November, when contractors renovating the cement plaza at the apartment building may have damaged the 35- year-old trees. Or maybe not. "We got hit with summonses and received a letter from the Parks Department saying we damaged the trees and they had to be removed at our expense," explained an engineer from York Restoration, who requested anonymity because the murder charge is being appealed. The company's owner, George York, hired arborist Don Venezia, who inspected the allegedly wounded trees. "At this time," Venezia wrote, "the trees have set bud and in my opinion are alive and healthy." Venezia said that one of the gingkoes has "some small root damage, less than one inch," but suggested that the problem could be remedied by trimming "the damaged roots." The Parks Department did not accept Venezia's diagnosis. "Brooklyn forestry requests that these Four of the five tree stumps that remain in front of 75 Henry St. after the Parks Department chopped down their 35-year-old tops. trees are removed due to root damage ASAP," Matthew Wells, a department forester, wrote back. York offered a compromise - namely that the trial be put on hold until the spring to see if the trees were thriving. If they were not, York promised to replace them. But the company got no response until last week, when Parks Department workers showed up with chainsaws and started removing the trees. "One of the workers stopped cutting after he removed the first branch and called his supervisor because the tree was alive," said the York engineer. "He said, 'Are you sure I have the right tree?' But he was told to keep cutting. That's how crazy this whole thing is." But as with any good murder story, George Della Latta, president of the building's co-op board, thinks nefarious forces are at work. "The way I figure it, the lifespan of a street tree is, what, 20 years?" Latta said. "So the Parks Department figures they're going to have to replace these trees anyway, so why not find a way to make someone else not only pay for their removal, but pay to replace them, too?" Latta has been sharing his theory with elected officials and even reporter David Diaz, who does the "Shame on You!" segment on WCBS-Channel 2 news. The Parks Department did not return repeated calls for comment. The irony is that the trees were allegedly damaged during ongoing construction that will transform the barren cement plaza at 75 Henry St. into a lushly landscaped sitting area. Some of the lost trees actually appear in the architectural renderings of the $4-million project. The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango Donald Loggins [EMAIL PROTECTED] = ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
