Date Posted:23:38:50 04/15/07 Sun Author: BronxWolf Subject: The Trees Along The River
“…the city pays private contractors on average an astronomical and unnecessary 1,225.00 dollars per tree.”
For those of you who might have missed this, when you think of what’s happening on The Bronx River, this is a bit of insight as to how the New York City Parks Department functions. Editorial from the Daily News, Sunday, April 1, 2007, page 36:
QUOTE
Daily News Editorial: Money grows on trees
New Yorker want more trees to grow in Brooklyn, as well as along the streets of the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island. They are clamoring for gingkos on the Grand Concourse(1) and honey locusts in Harlem – but thousands are being denied because of bureaucratic boneheadedness.
The Parks Department is in charge of street trees.(2) If you want one planted on your block, you can ask the department for a permit and foot the bill for the job. Or you can petition your community board to ask the department to plant a tree at city expense.(3)
That’s how most people do it. Parks routinely approves applications, but the wait between applying and getting a tree in the ground can take up to three years. Why? Because the city pays private contractors on average an astronomical and unnecessary 1,225.00 dollars per tree.
At that price, the department quickly runs out of money and postpones plantings from one year to the next, as happened with more than 1,800 requests last year. It’s enough to, well, drive you up a tree.
The situation traces back to 1999, when a contractor griped to then-city Controller Alan Hevesi that he faced unfair competition for some tree-planting jobs. Many companies in the field paid their workers 15 dollars an hour, the prevailing wage for gardener/landscapers. The contractor employed laborers who earned thirty-eight dollars and hour.
Hevesi’s office rewrote the job description so all planting work must at least be overseen by a laborer, even when it doesn’t require heavy equipment. Today, the wage scale has risen to fifty-five dollars and hour – a huge waste of money when it is still the fifteen dollars gardener/landscaper who actually plants the tree.(4)
Of course, Parks’ tree-planting budget couldn’t keep up with the pay schedules. So the number of trees planted has dropped from 13,658 I fiscal year 2002 to 9,100 last year.
This is nuts. New York needs more trees, not less. And it surely doesn’t need to pay skilled laborers to do unskilled work. Controller Bill Thompson must reexamine the cost structure and change the job description. Or give the work to Parks gardeners. There has to be away to plant a tree for less than 1,225.00 dollars.
Let’s get to the, er, root of the problem.
END QUOTE
(1) There were hundreds of trees planted along the Grand Concourse for many years. Each tree had been planted in memory of a WWII fallen soldier. New York City Parks Department began removing and destroying these trees until the community put a stop to it. Since then, New York City Parks Department has replaced SOME of the trees, NOT in memory of anyone, rather simply to placate the borough. Many, if not most of these trees, are dead. Furthermore, they are not the same species as those originally planted, rather, New York City Parks Department stuffs what-ever it happens to have handy… usually sick or sub-standard quality. In addition, the people of The Bronx are certainly NOT “clamoring for gingkos on the Grand Concourse”… IF anything, Bronxites want the stolen trees replaced with the same species that was removed and gingko is NOT it.
(2) A little-known fact is that the New York City Parks Department holds itself responsible ONLY for the planting. After the trees are planted, it is EXPECTED that the resident or business owner is to care for the tree… the New York City Parks Department relinquishes itself from ALL further responsibility.
(3) Petitioning the Parks Department will, as the article points out, leave you tree-less for years! Petitioning local community boards may put you in the midst of debates and arguments that you really don’t care to be a party to… community boards can oppose street trees, or any other trees for that matter, quite strongly.
(4) Worth repeating in whole: Hevesi’s office rewrote the job description so all planting work must at least be overseen by a laborer, even when it doesn’t require heavy equipment. Today, the wage scale has risen to fifty-five dollars and hour – a huge waste of money when it is still the fifteen dollars gardener/landscaper who actually plants the tree.
SO how does this effect The Bronx River? I’ve just spent a few days on the east and west bank, taking an inventory of what is there and what WAS there and the results are not comforting.
The old trees are either falling, by the roots, from a soil so eroded that it can no longer support the old growth. And, by the way, the old growth is what the NRG and New York City Parks Department promised to save as a part of their “Forever Wild” program. Those trees that haven’t fallen are being cut down. Meanwhile, other trees are being “girdled”. A cut is made about 12 inches from the ground, around the entire base of the tree. In essence, the upper tree is slowly starved to death. When the tree finally dies, it’s left to rot, possibly falling on a passer-by. Brilliant strategy, isn’t it?
The old trees have been replaced by pussy willows… not trees, but shrubs. There’s sand all over the banks, east and west, which washes into the river with rains and snow melts. There’s sand along the paths and walk-ways. The sands incorporate into the soil, making the soil less capable of supporting large trees. And as the trees disappear, the foliage below must change in cooperation with the changes of sunlight.
Natural habitats are being destroyed…
On the most recent visit to the west bank, duck eggs were seen, NOT in nests, but simply under bushes and shrubs, along the paths, on the ground. The wildlife presence is not looking healthy and that wildlife that was, several years ago, finally returning to The Bronx River Forest is missing. The ducks are fewer and obviously disturbed, laying eggs as they travel along, and the geese are mottled and almost lethargic.
In the absence of old growth to hold the banks’ soil, the shore-line is changing, widening, making the depth of the river increasingly shallow. Soon, at highest point, the water levels will be little more than inches. A loss of water-life will be soon coming.
As this continues, New York City Parks Department is wasting money on each street tree planted, and, as shown in the quoted editorial, at a price of 1,225.00 dollars per tree, it doesn’t look promising that trees will be replaced along the banks of The Bronx River. Habitat will continue to change or go missing, the life along the river will be forced to change and the river that we once enjoyed will diminish… soon to become little more than a dry river-bed.
It’s time to tell Benepe he’s failing in his responsibility to the people of NYC, not to mention, the people of The Bronx. Carrion does precious little to improve the river… This is all disgusting… Disgusting but expected. New York City Parks Department seems to believe, whole-heartedly, that they alone hold the fate of parks and our river. Hopefully, this posting will bring the tragedies to the attention of the public and more so, hopefully, the public will react and address the matter, bringing it to a stop.
It’s time to re-plant the banks of The Bronx River with species appropriate to our river! And it’s time to do so NOT at such an irrational cost.
