Freedom Trees Come To Queens

The first spades full of earth were turned last Thursday as Parks Department officials began installation of the Freedom Trees Park, a 9/11 memorial at Landing Strip Park in Jackson Heights.
Landing Strip Park is located at the corner of 80th Street and 25th Avenue. The trees were bought with money from a Queens Courier and Queens Business Todays Top Ten Women In Business fund-raiser and are part of an initiative to plant similar memorials in all five boroughs.
The memorials will have plaques and be formally dedicated in early September.
"For years, people had used this as a soccer field," said David Rosero from Community Board 3, which represents the surrounding neighborhood. "They left refuse all over. This will alleviate the problem pemanently."
"This is also being done for aesthetic reasons," said Richard Murphy, borough commissioner for Parks. "It looks terrible."
The Queens Garden Florists are working with the Parks
Department to create a serene, meditative spot to remember those lost in 9/11.
Until now, the park which is a fly-over for jets on their final approach to LaGuardia Airport has had few trees. Instead, several large boulders litter the area. These will be repositioned during planting to complement the new trees and make the area more attractive.
Because of airport landing light towers in the park, the lot is considered "passive parkland," said Murphy. It cannot be developed as a childs playground, but people are welcome to exercise or walk their dogs there.
Bram Gunther, deputy director of Forestry and Horticulture, promised Rosero tools and training to maintain the park, as CB3 plans to enlist the community to maintain it.
"We run a stewardship program out of our office," said Gunther. "We give the necessary training and utensils to communities who wish to have their own gardens. They sign a contract with us, but they must maintain the garden on a weekly basis, or we [terminate the agreement]."
The idea for the Freedom Trees initiative was introduced in an April 2002 Queens Courier editorial that called for every American town and city to "plant a Freedom Tree for each one of its sons and daughters." It likened the trees to "Liberty Trees" that were planted by American colonists during the 1760s as a symbol of independence from British rule. They became symbolic of freedom from oppression and tyranny.
It was beneath the shade of the first Liberty Tree in Boston that the Sons of Liberty, Americas first supporters of a revolutionary war against England, assembled to plan the war for independence. Throughout colonial times, the patriots held frequent rallies and meetings beneath the trees, which would adorn the national landscape for the next 230 years. The last one was on the campus of St. Johns College in Annapolis and had to be taken down in the 1990s after being damaged during a storm.
A short time after the Courier editorial appeared, City Council joined the campaign.
On June 5, 2002, Councilmen James Sanders and Joseph Addabbo introduced a resolution into City Council. Sanders, who chairs the Councils Economic Development Committee, invoked the memory of such Revolutionary War heroes as Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine and Crispus Attucks, saying the Freedom Trees would "symbolize the solidarity of all New Yorkers against terrorism and for the causes of freedom and liberty." He believed that communities need their own gathering places, "where they can pay tribute to the fallen."
Councilman Joe Addabbo Jr., chairman of the Councils Parks Committee, supported the resolution, calling it "do-able" with financial support from private companies, civic associations and fundraising. The trees would be planted in hopes that people all over the country would do the same in their own neighborhoods.
Addabbo noted that other kinds of memorializing, like renaming streets for fallen heroes, can be more expensive. Furthermore, allowing family members and friends to plant the trees would establish a more personal connection between them and the memorial.
All of City Council soon supported the proposal. Members of other legislative bodies added their voices to the chorus.
United States Senator Hillary Clinton called it "a wonderful memorial to the victims of the September 11th attacks." She added: "This is a fitting tribute to both the memory of those lives that were lost and to our hopes for the future."
At an October City Council hearing on the resolution, Victoria Schneps, publisher of The Queens Courier, testified on the importance of the trees being located in neighborhoods where the victims lived, not just at one memorial site. Later that month, the Council unanimously passed the resolution.
The first official planting of a grove of trees with a plaque at Sunset Park in Brooklyn was set for the following month. Money would come from a $150,000 federal grant.
"Let freedom ring," said Sanders. "There is no better way to honor the heroes of 9/11 than with a living memorial that will clean our air and be appreciated by future generations and provide rallying points for those who believe the attacks only strengthened our resolve."
"This really is an asset to the community," said Rosero. "We will guard this like our own garden."