Keeping Woodhaven Wooded
It’s called “Woodhaven” for a reason.
This neighborhood has always been a very wooded one. The many trees lining our blocks and the acres of foliage in Forest Park are one of Woodhaven’s defining features.
In recent years, however, a negative trend has accelerated on Woodhaven’s streets: when a tree falls, it hasn’t been replaced. Too often, a stump or a dirt patch serves as an unfortunate reminder of a greener, shadier era in the neighborhood.
This has been especially true since Hurricane Sandy felled numerous trees-including our iconic Christmas tree on Forest Parkway- late last year.
It is time for fallen trees across Woodhaven to be replaced, and for remaining trees to be looked after better than they have been.
The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA) held a “straw poll” at its January town hall. Each resident received 10 straws, which they dropped into drinking cups to vote on which Woodhaven issues are most pressing. When one adds the vote totals for two separate cups- “more trees” and “tree maintenance”- tree-related problems end up tied for sixth place on the list of important issues in Woodhaven, behind such perennial topics as noise and crime.
Like the WRBA, Community Board 9-which encompasses Woodhaven and adjacent neighborhoods- has also underscored the need for more tree plantings and better arboreal maintenance, making these issues high priorities in their budget requests to the city.
Street trees throughout New York City are the responsibility of the Parks Department. This agency has done some great things for Woodhaven recently, including reopening the Forest Park Carousel and renovating the Forest Park greenhouse. Unfortunately, the Parks Department has not had much success in maintaining and planting trees in Woodhaven.
Along with many of my neighbors and fellow WRBA members, I have logged 311 requests for replanting of trees. We are typically informed that such requests take many months, and then our requests are closed some time later without any explanation. An actual re-planting feels like a rare occurrence.
Sherman Kane, a member of both the WRBA and Board 9, has long lobbied for more trees, especially in the now-empty tree pits along the traffic medians of Woodhaven Boulevard. Some stretches of this thoroughfare have become so bereft of trees that “Woodhaven Boulevard” now seems like a slight misnomer. Kane’s efforts haven’t met with success.
Kane offers the example of how, after the 2010 blizzard, a city snow plow fatally damaged the tree on the Woodhaven Boulevard median in front of his house, which he had regularly watered for years. After numerous 311 requests, e-mails, and other correspondence, the pit remains empty.
The Parks Department claims these locations are too narrow to accommodate trees, yet their own guidelines indicate that pits can be as narrow as four feet, and those guidelines offer flexibility if multiple trees are to be planted in a single long tree bed. Not only do the Woodhaven Boulevard medians meet that width requirement in many places (including the tree pit outside Kane’s house), but they could potentially be transformed into a long tree bed and qualify for a more flexible measurement.
At the very least, it makes sense for the Parks Department to re-plant in places throughout Woodhaven where there recently had been trees standing. And there is no question that the trees we still have must be better maintained.
Since 2007, the Parks Department has been engaged in an initiative to plant one million trees in New York City by 2017. It still has over 350,000 trees to go. Some of that gap can be made up by planting in this neighborhood.
We welcome every effort to keep Woodhaven wooded.
Editor’s note: Blenkinsopp is a member of Community Board 9 and director of communications for the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association. For additional information on the WRBA, visit www.woodhaven-nyc.org.
