Local Leafin’: Street Tree Walking Tour Sunday 10/24

Posted on 2010-10-18 by admin

Japanese Maple leaves (red), with Linden in the background (yellow), at the corner of Rugby Road and Cortelyou Road in Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn, November 2007.

The Sustainable Flatbush Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour will be this Sunday, October 24. Tours begin at 11am and 12noon. I’m proud to once again be one of your guides. Your other guide will be Sam Bishop, Director of Education of Trees NY. As in the past, tours will start at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, our other community partner. This is also listed as a NeighborWoods Month event.

After a dry summer, October brought ample rains just in time to salvage some fall foliage. Dogwoods, Locusts, and Ash Trees are showing strong color. The neighborhood should be at near-peak foliage conditions for the year for the tour.

On the tour, you can see:

Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
Amelanchier, Serviceberry
Betula nigra, River Birch
Cercis canadensis, Redbud
Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
Fraxinus americana, White Ash
Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
Pinus strobus, White Pine
Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’, Columnar English Oak
Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
Ulmus americana, American Elm

… and many more.

Map

View Sustainable Flatbush Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour in a larger map

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brooklyn, NY October 17, 2010
SUSTAINABLE FLATBUSH FALL 2010 STREET TREE WALKING TOUR
Sunday, October 24, 2010

Ever wanted to leaf peep without leaving NYC? The Sustainable Flatbush 2nd Annual Fall Street Tree Walking Tour is a perfect opportunity to enjoy beautiful — and local — fall foliage in Brooklyn’s historic Victorian Flatbush! The neighborhood is filled with an incredible variety of breathtaking street trees—including some that are more than 100 years old! This year, our tree-expert tour guides will be Sam Bishop of Trees NY and neighborhood resident Chris Kreussling, aka Flatbush Gardener.

Throughout the tour, your street tree guide will…

identify trees and their characteristics
share interesting facts
explore local tree history
discuss the beneficial role of street trees in the urban environment
explain basics of street tree stewardship

and much more!

Location:
Tours start at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Road, just south of Cortelyou Road.

Directions:
Take the Q train to Cortelyou Road and walk west after exiting the station toward Argyle Road. As a reminder, check the MTA website for schedule and service advisories before you head out.

Time:
Tours depart at 11:00 AM and 12:00 NOON.
Tours take about 2 hours to complete and are 1 mile in length.
This is a rain or shine event — please dress for the weather!

Suggested Donation: $5

CONTACT: info@sustainableflatbush.org / (718) 208-0575

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate,
and advocate for sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and
beyond. For more information, please visit http://sustainableflatbush.org

[goo.gl GMAP]

Links

Sustainable Flatbush
Sacred Vibes Apothecary
Trees NY
NeighborWoods Month

Community Gardens Town Hall Meeting, Saturday, 10/2

Posted on 2010-10-01 by admin

This event is also listed on Facebook and EventBrite.

When:
Saturday, October 2
12:00pm – 4:00pm

Where:
The New School – Wollman Hall
66 W. 12th St, 5th Floor
New York, NY

On October 2, 2010, the New York City Community Garden Coalition will convene a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the recently published “new rules” for community gardens on City land set to go into effect on October 13, 2010, as well as look to alternative legal strategies for long-term preservation.

While media reports have characterized the Coalition’s opinion of the rules as favorable, NYCCGC has officially held comment, …and has been meeting with Coalition members, conferring with other greening groups, and consulting with legal experts to fully assess the scope and impact of the recently updated rules.

“We held comment on the new rules for a reason,” says NYCCGC President Karen Washington. “The far-reaching impact of these rules is not something to be taken lightly, and needs to be analyzed thoroughly. While we appreciate that steps in the right direction have been made, there are still some serious concerns that need to be addressed before we claim total victory for the City’s community gardeners.”

While NYCCGC had originally been involved with the drafting of the new rules, negotiations eventually broke off, leaving the Coalition and its allies frustrated. On the morning of August 10, NYCCGC rallied supporters, helping fill Parks’ public hearing regarding the rules to overflow capacity. Over 300 garden devotees shared their passion as well as their consternation at the then-proposed rules, ultimately having a positive impact on the recently published rules.

One revelation that came to light at the hearing was from Christopher Amato, who served as lead attorney in the NY State Attorney General’s 2002 landmark lawsuit against the City, is that all 198 community gardens transferred to Parks (and more since then) were permanently protected by the 2002 “Community Gardens Agreement,” which he also helped author.

12:00pm – 2:00pm: The first half of the Town Hall meeting will include an introduction to the current state of community garden affairs, followed by analysis of the new rules governing community gardens on city-owned land by several experts in the field of environmental justice.

2:00pm – 4:00pm: The second half of the event will be devoted to looking above and beyond the new rules: the pervasive sentiment, shared by supporters including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Parks and Recreation Committee Chair Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Christina Grace of the NYS Office of Community Gardens, is that true permanency for the gardens lies in legislation. Several legal strategies will be discussed; the Coalition is urging all elected local and state representatives with an interest in this important environmental justice issue to attend.

Both sessions will conclude with comments from invited greening groups, and an open question & answer period.

Links

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG): Community Garden Alliance
New York City Community Garden Coalition

Fall Back, 2010

Posted on 2010-09-22 by admin

Persephone with her pomegranate. Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Proserpine (Oil on canvas, 1874) – Tate Gallery, London

This year’s autumnal or September equinox occurs at 03:09 Universal Time (UTC) on September 23. In my local time, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), it’s 23:09, 11:09 PM, on September 22.

The Earth’s seasons are caused by the rotation axis of the Earth not being perpendicular to its orbital plane. The Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of approximately 23.44° from the orbital plane; this tilt is called the axial tilt. As a consequence, for half of the year (i.e. from around March 20 to around September 22), the northern hemisphere tips toward the Sun, with the maximum around June 21, while for the other half of the year, the southern hemisphere has this honor, with the maximum around December 21. The two instants when the Sun is directly overhead at the Equator are the equinoxes.
– Wikipedia: Equinox

This image shows the orientation of the Earth from the perspective of the Sun at the March/Vernal Equinox: North is to the upper right, and Earth orbits to the left. At the September/Autumnal Equinox, the only difference is that North would appear to the upper left from the same perspective. Illustration: Dennis Nilsson

Bas-relief in Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid), Parseh, also known as Persepolis. On the day of an equinox, the power of an eternally fighting bull (personifying the Earth) and that of a lion (personifying the Sun) are equal. The September equinox marks the first day of Mehr or Libra in the Persian calendar. Photo: Anatoly Terentiev

So, what’s with the chick with the fruit at the top of this post? Persephone/Proserpina was the daughter of Demeter/Ceres and Zeus/Jupiter. Demeter hid her daughter from the other gods, but Hades/Pluto abducted her:

She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs — Athena, and Artemis, the Homeric hymn says — or Leucippe, or Oceanids — in a field in Enna when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Later, the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the Sirens for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened.

Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, which forced her to return to the underworld for the winter each year.
– Wikipedia: Persephone

But it’s not Persephone’s return to the underworld that brings on Winter. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, agriculture, forests, and the earth. It’s Demeter’s grief for her daughter that that cools the nights, shortens the days, triggers the harvest, and brings on the “sleep” of the earth.

Links

U.S. Naval Observatory: The Seasons and Earth’s Orbit
Wikipedia: Equinox, Persephone

Daffodil Project 2010

Posted on 2010-09-21 by admin

Update 2010-10-22: Manhattan distribution date changed.
Updated 2010-10-09: Bronx distribution date and location changed.
Updated 2010-09-23: Added distribution dates and sites.

Daffodil bulbs just planted in place in a tree bed on Cortelyou Road in November 2007.

Today and tomorrow are the last two days to request Daffodil bulbs from New Yorkers for Parks for this year’s Daffodil Project. Bulbs will be distributed in October. In Brooklyn, bulbs will be available for pick up on Saturday, October 23, from 8am-11am, at Grand Army Plaza at the Greenmarket Manager’s tent near the white flagpole.

For nearly a decade the Daffodil Project, a living memorial to 9/11, has been a citywide effort to beautify every neighborhood by planting daffodils. Led by New Yorkers for Parks in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, this annual volunteer effort serves as a living memorial for the victims, a symbol of remembrance, and an act of rebirth that involves citizens in the revitalization of their communities.

Each fall, New Yorkers for Parks distributes hundreds of thousands of daffodil bulbs to New Yorkers in all five boroughs. The bulbs are free to anyone who commits to planting them in a park or public space.

Dutch bulb supplier Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs has pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. Over 20,000 New Yorkers have responded to this challenge, making the Daffodil Project one of the largest citywide volunteer efforts.

Since the project’s inception, nearly 4 million daffodils have been planted throughout New York City.
– The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Distribution Dates and Sites

Thank you to all the community groups who signed up for bulbs for partnering with us to make this living 9/11 memorial possible. Bulbs will be distributed to those who registered at the five sites across the city (one in each borough). Please try to arrive earlier rather than later.

Staten Island, Silver Lake Tennis House: Sunday, October 17th, 10am-12pm
On the Forest Avenue side of Silver Lake Park near the intersection of Hart Boulevard and Forest Avenue.

Brooklyn, Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket: Saturday, October 23rd, 8am-11am
At the manager’s tent near the white flag pole.

Manhattan – Date changed – Union Square Greenmarket: Sunday, October 24th, 10am-1pm
At the manager’s tent near the corner of East 15th Street and Union Square West.

The Bronx – Date and location changed – Bronx Borough Hall Greenmarket: Tuesday, October 26, 10am-12pm
at the manager’s tent, Grand Concourse between 161st and 162nd streets

Queens, The Overlook in Forest Park: Saturday, October 30th, 10am-1pm
At 80-30 Park Lane, Kew Gardens NY 11415. Enter through the service road.

We are asking groups who requested over 300 bulbs to bring their own bags or boxes to take the bulbs away on the day of the distribution. Tote bags will not be handed out this year. Thank you for your assistance with this!

[goo.gl]

Links

The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

City Announces Revised Rules for Community Gardens

Posted on 2010-09-13 by admin

Updated 2010-09-14: Added links to news reports.

Note: The full press release claims that “there are more than 600 gardens across New York City.” This in incorrect. The latest census lists only 482 gardens, 20% fewer than claimed in Parks’ press release.

Parks Press Release

Monday, September 13, 2010

Parks Commissioner Announces Final Community Garden Rules Strengthening Protections For Gardens

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe today announced the Parks Department has finalized its Community Garden Rules, which incorporate significant changes based on public comments made on the draft rules. The Notice of Adoption, including the full rules, will be published in the City Record on Monday, September 13, 2010 and take effect 30 days later.

Key changes to the proposed rules, led by Commissioner Benepe in concert with elected officials, community boards, and community garden organizations, were made in response to testimony from the community at a public hearing on August 10th, 2010 which was hosted by the Parks Department. They include:

Active gardens under the Parks Department’s jurisdiction are preserved as gardens as long as they are registered and licensed by the Department.
Licenses will be renewed as long as the garden satisfies the registration criteria.
Parks must attempt to identify successor gardening groups for failing gardens and has nine months from time of default to return the garden to active status.
New gardens may be created and will have the same protections as existing gardens.
A party licensed by the City to perform work that results in damage to a garden will be required to return the garden to its preexisting condition.
The Department will attempt to provide notices required under the Current Rules to gardeners in other languages.
The Statement of Basis and Purpose states that gardens will be preserved and explains that the transfer and development provisions apply to abandoned and persistently non-compliant gardens under the Department’s jurisdiction.

…

Links

Parks Press Release, 2010-09-13

Time’s Up! Statement on New Garden Rules, Time’s Up, 2010-09-14

Community Gardens Get More Protection, Brooklyn Eagle, 2010-09-13
Community-Garden Rules Receive a Mixed Reaction, Javier C. Hernandez, NY Times, 2010-09-13
City Adopts New Rules For Community Gardens, Erica Ferrari, NY1 News (Video)
NYC Adopts New Rules For Community Gardens, Monica Morales, WPIX (Video)

Grief & Gardening: Nine Years

Posted on 2010-09-11 by admin

Let’s get the usual question out of the way. This is where I was the morning of September 11, 2001.

This is Skytop Tower at Mohonk Mountain House at sunset the previous night. Blog Widow and I had planned a week-long vacation upstate, starting at Mohonk. The morning of September 11, we hiked up to Skytop. A rustic retreat, Mohonk had no televisions or radios in the rooms. As we left the massive wooden structure to go out hiking, I noticed people huddled around the few televisions in some of the common rooms. I thought nothing of it at the time. I later realized we left just after the first attack.
We hiked around the lake, then up to Skytop, and climbed up into the tower. We had the trails almost to ourselves. As we came down the tower, I sang loudly, my voice echoing through the stone structure: “I love to go a-wandering …” Part of the way, we encountered another hiker coming up the stairs. I stopped singing and said, “excuse me.” Only then did he lift his head to us, tears streaming down his face. “Did you hear what happened?” “No.” “They flew a plane into the World Trade Center.”

We hiked back. When we returned to the buildings, the common rooms were packed with people, watching the news on every available television. We went back to our room. Blog Widow went back downstairs to find out what happened. I had brought my laptop with me, so I tried getting online. He returned to tell me the World Trade Center had collapsed. I was incredulous; I couldn’t imagine what that meant. By the time I went downstairs myself, both towers were gone. I sat and watched those horrible images for the first time.

We decided to hold to our vacation plans for the week, somber though it was. There was nothing we could do back home. My workplace downtown, blocks from Ground Zero, would not reopen for two weeks. Reminders met us everywhere we went. And everywhere we went, we were ambassadors for New York City. When we told people where we were from, as often as not, they broke down crying. We were their reminders.

We drove back to my apartment in Brooklyn that Sunday. I was startled when I saw the first airplane flying overhead; with all flights grounded, the skies had been empty since the attacks. I got my first glimpse as we drove along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway: twin trails of heavy smoke, orange and red from a setting sun. I burst into tears. Somehow, I had expected the fires to have burned out by then.

When we were allowed to return to work, I got my first personal glimpse of Ground Zero.

The fires continued to burn for months, through the winter, into 2002. For weeks, until a few heavy rains washed the city, everything was covered in ash and dust. It collected in drifts along sidewalks and gutters. Every day I went to work, for months, I smelled and breathed the smoke. All of Downtown Manhattan was a crematorium.

Thousands of shrines and memorials appeared and grew throughout the city. The most heart-breaking were those around St. Vincent’s Hospital, which prepped for massive casualties, but received very few. Few who didn’t walk, or run, away survived. Even today, remains have yet to be found for over 1,000 people murdered in the attacks.

The ash washed away, the fires died, the smoke cleared. The candles and posters gradually eroded. A year after the attacks, the memorials which covered the fences around St. Paul’s Chapel were carefully removed and preserved. Eventually, even the basin which held the foundations of the towers and other structures on the site was emptied. As the direct evidence of what happened faded, new symbols emerged. For me, these are far more powerful and meaningful than any flag or banner.

Tonight, the Tribute in Light will shine again.

The Sphere, the sculpture by Fritz Koenig that had held place of prominence in the center of the WTC Plaza, was heavily damaged in the towers’ collapse, but survived. It’s been on display at Battery Park for the past few years. It will be returned to the Memorial for its permanent home.

Another sculpture, Steve Tobin’s “Trinity Root,” was placed in the courtyard of Trinity Church, two blocks from Ground Zero. It was cast from the roots of a Sycamore that stood in the cemetery of St. Paul’s Chapel, a few blocks north, and directly across the street from Ground Zero. The tree was destroyed when the towers fell, but it shielded the church itself from even greater damage.

St. Paul’s Chapel has been a moving memorial all these years. It’s filled with an ever-changing display of artifacts and remembrances from all over the world.

And finally, the official, multi-million dollar memorial will occupy the footprints of the towers and the plaza between them. Here’s a model of the National September 11 Memorial at the Preview Site on Vesey Street, across the street from St. Paul’s near the corner of Church Street at Ground Zero in Downtown Manhattan.

The first of 400 trees for the grove were planted just two weeks ago, in time for today’s observations. These are Quercus bicolor, Swamp White Oaks. The other species will be Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweet Gum. A forest and waterfalls will take the place of devastation, natural elements no less powerful and evocative for being constrained to an urban grid. They will also remind me of where I was when I first heard of the attacks. A garden as the ultimate embodiment of reflection and recovery.

[bit.ly]
[goo.gl]

Citizen Pruner Training Fall Schedule

Posted on 2010-09-10 by admin

The London Plane Tree in front of my house.

TreesNY’s Citizen Pruner Tree Care Course is being offered in Brooklyn and Manhattan this season, covering basic tree biology, street tree identification and care. Upon successful completion of the final exam, participants receive a license that certifies them to legally prune trees owned by the City of New York. In New York City where there is limited money for tree maintenance but significant need, Citizen Pruners provide a tremendous benefit to our urban environment.

The twelve hour course consists of four weekly two-hour classes and four hours of hands-on experience in the field. Participants may miss up to one classroom session. The weekend field outing is mandatory. Specific dates vary by location. Locations and Dates for classes in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island are still to be determined.

The course fee is $100 and includes a comprehensive manual and other materials. Course fee is non-refundable.You can register and pay online with Visa, Mastercard or Discover. To pay by check, make your check payable to Trees New York, and indicate the course location on the check

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Borough Hall
Borough President’s Conference Room
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Wednesdays, 6-8pm, Sep 15, 22, 29 and October 6, 6 – 8 PM
Saturday, October 2, 10 AM – 2 PM

Downtown Manhattan

51 Chambers Street, Room #501
New York, NY 10007
Thursday, September 23 & 30, and October 7 & 14, 6-8pm
Saturday, October 9, 10am-2pm

Uptown Manhattan

The Arsenal in Central Park, Third Floor
830 Fifth Avenue, at 64th Street
New York, NY 10065
Mondays, Oct 18 & 25, and November 1 & 8, 6-8pm
Saturday, November 6, 10am-2pm
[goog.gl]

About Trees NY

Trees New York is an environmental and urban forestry nonprofit organization. Our mission is to plant, preserve and protect New York City’s urban forest through education, active citizen participation and advocacy.

Trees New York • 51 Chambers Street, Suite 1412A • New York, NY 10007 • (212) 227-1887 • www.treesny.org • info@treesny.org

Boardwalk Community Garden, Coney Island, Brooklyn

Posted on 2010-09-06 by admin

Slideshow

[goo.gl]

Links

OASIS Map

Community Gardens Guest Post in Garden Rant

Posted on 2010-09-06 by admin

See Community Gardens: Where “Garden” Becomes the Verb on Garden Rant.

Links

New York City Community Garden Coalition
Open Space Index Report (PDF), New Yorkers for Parks
American Community Gardening Association

Histories of NYC Community Gardens

New York’s Community Gardens (1970s-2002), TreeBranch Network, Neighborhood Open Space Coalition
Community Gardens in New York City: the Lower East Side of Manhattan (1960s-2002), Not Bored

Contemporary reports from the 2002 Settlement Agreement

Bringing Peace to the Garden of Tranquility, Richard Stapleton, Land&People, Fall 1999, Trust for Public Land
Community Gardens Endangered Still, Anne Schwartz, Gotham Gazette, May 2001
Community Garden Negotiations, Anne Schwartz, Gotham Gazette, May 2002

The 2010 Settlement Expiration and Proposed New Rules

Keeping the Gardens Green, NY Times editorial, 8/2/10
Green groups fear new community garden rules, Heather Haddon, AM New York, 8/4/10
Coalition Seeks More Protection For Community Gardens, Raanan Geberer, Brooklyn Eagle, 8/6/10
Time’s Up Response To Benepe’s Embarrassing NY Post Community Garden Op-Ed, A Walk in the Park, 8/12/10

Support NYC’s Community Gardens

Posted on 2010-08-09 by admin

Garden supporters gathered on the steps of City Hall for last Wednesday’s press conference.

Today is the last day to register to speak at tomorrow’s hearings on proposed rules that will govern more than half of NYC’s community gardens. The New York City Community Gardeners Coalition (NYCCGC) has all the details on their Web site. The deadline for submitting written comments is tomorrow, coinciding with the public hearing.

Many other groups are also joining together for rallies and other events to show support for NYC’s community gardens. Even if you’re not inspired to speak or write, please come out to show your support.

Monday, August 9

Register to speak by calling (212) 360-1335 or email laura.lavelle@parks.nyc.gov. Spoken testimony will be limited to 3 minutes.

Tuesday, August 10

What: PEP RALLY
Time: 9am
Where: Elliot Chelsea Green Grounds
425 West 25th St (9th-10th Aves.), Manhattan

What: Public Hearing (you must register today to speak)
Time: 11am
Where: Chelsea Recreation Center
430 West 25^th Street, Manhattan

Links

Take Action: Parks’ Policy Change Threatens Community Gardens, NYC Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC)

Coalition Seeks More Protection For Community Gardens, Raanan Geberer, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2010-08-06
Gardens of Fear: Community planters fret over new rules, Erin Durking, NY Daily News, 2010-08-11
NYRP Testifies on Behalf of NYC Community Gardens, New York Restoration Project, 2010-08-16

Map

Press Release

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Distribution Dates and Sites

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Gardeners for Recovery Cobblestone Campaign

My photos

Links

Trinity Root

Brooklyn

Downtown Manhattan

Uptown Manhattan

Related Content

About Trees NY

Slideshow

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Histories of NYC Community Gardens

Contemporary reports from the 2002 Settlement Agreement

The 2010 Settlement Expiration and Proposed New Rules

Monday, August 9

Tuesday, August 10

Related Content

Links