Readers: Save the trees!
The leader of a non-profi t dedicated
to maintaining Fort Greene
Park came out in favor of a controversial
scheme hatched by the Parks
Department to chop down dozens of
trees at the beloved green space, saying
the trees targeted for destruction
are preventing other, better
plants from taking root.
“Its roots and canopy are so
dense with the shade, that things
don’t grow underneath it. So yes,
we like trees, but these types of trees
are not friendly to other types of
plants and habitats,” said Rosamond
Fletcher, the executive director
of the Fort Greene Conservancy,
a non-profi t that works closely with
the city on the park’s upkeep and for
hosting events there.
The city wants to destroy a total
of 83 trees, 52 to make way for a
grand paved plaza at the Myrtle Avenue
and St. Edwards Street corner
of Fort Greene Park, and another 31
to accommodate a redesign the park
near Myrtle Avenue and Washington
Park.
But the plan hit a roadblock after
local residents and environmentalists
fi led a lawsuit against the
city in state Supreme Court in April,
demanding offi cials conduct an environmental
review of their plaza
scheme to determine whether replacing
trees with concrete paving
would create a hot zone that could
negatively affect surrounding wildlife.
Readers were irate online:
It’s remarkable viewing the scrambling
to justify the indefensible
scheme for the Ft Greene Parks Without
Borders. To give the benefi t of the
doubt to those who’ve been brainwashed
with misinformation and
are willing to abet the environmental
consequences of the plan, one sees
the Parks Dept and the Conservancy
coming up with new plot lines every
time the Dept of Parks rationale is disputed...
by inconvenient facts! First it
was the ‘sickness’ of the trees-an independent
Arborist said they are just
fi ne & the Parks Dept after a FOIL revealed
they were slated to be ‘offed’
for ‘redesign’! Then it was all about
COURIER L 40 IFE, OCT. 18-24, 2019
viewing the Monument-the tree canopy
foliage is -um- in the way for an
untainted view. Oh -but there’s more-
per the Parks Dept own statement to
the press: “We have the responsibility
to balance the benefi ts of development
& tree preservation for the greater
good of the community. While designbased
tree removals are uncommon
in our capital projects, they are necessary
for this design. (Read between
the lines-luxury buildings with their
politician campaign funders-want
that corner-adjacent to the NYCHA
public housing-cleaned up). Now it’s
the desperate assertion cited in the
above article introducing the “understory
garden” as a comparable benefi t
when 58 tall canopied healthy trees
are eviscerated...really? When the
historic grassy mounds beloved by
dancing kidoodles as their stage and
costumed dogs competing on Halloween
are leveled...honestly? But don’t
take my word for it...go to the websitelink
below -check out the videos...the
facts...the lawsuits and yes, the community
preference which wants the
Parks Dept to get back to stewarding
the health of the trees-not the urban
planning redesigning attack that
Commissioner Silver now owns.
We own Climate
Change with Our Actions from The
Earth
The Fort Greene Park Conservancy’s
reasoning for chopping down
dozens of mature trees to purportedly
maintain the “understory” is
preposterous and backward. I do not
comprehend how this group of people
who pretend to care about the park
can take this position. Shade is precisely
what park-goers and residents
are seeking when they go to Fort
Greene park. The redesign of the
park that includes installing a huge
cement plaza on Myrtle in place of
the trees will dramatically reduce
the available greenspace and shade
which seniors, children, basketball
players, parents, barbecue-goers,
and residents currently enjoy. The
whole Parks Without Borders is illconceived.
Sure, NYers want more
access to parks. Do this by expanding
greenspace out, don’t pour concrete
in to make a road and plaza that
is only fi t for commercial use.
Madelon from Fort Greene
What is not mentioned in this article
is the species of tree she is referring
to; the Norway Maple. Please
look up the information about this
tree. Here is some info... From Wiki.
The Norway maple was introduced
to northeastern North America between
1750 and 1760 as an ornamental
shade tree. It was brought to the
Pacifi c Northwest in the 1870s. The
roots of Norway maples grow very
close to the ground surface, starving
other plants of moisture. For example,
lawn grass (and even weeds) will
usually not grow well beneath a Norway
maple, but English Ivy, with its
minimal rooting needs, may thrive.
In addition, the dense canopy of Norway
maples can inhibit understory
growth. Some have suggested Norway
maples may also release chemicals
to discourage undergrowth, although
this claim is controversial. A
platanoides has been shown to inhibit
the growth of native saplings as a canopy
tree or as a sapling. The Norway
maple also suffers less herbivory than
the sugar maple, allowing it to gain a
competitive advantage against the latter
species. From New York Invasive
Species Information.... Forests that
are intact are generally more likely to
ward off invaders. However, Norway
maple has been found to be very successful
at establishing itself in a variety
of conditions including mature,
deeply shaded forests (Martin and
Marks 2006). Due to the dense canopy
of Norway maples, forest diversity is
starting to decline because the excess
shade they create inhibits the regeneration
of sugar maples and other native
seedlings. The shallow root system
makes growing diffi cult for other
native shrubs and wildfl owers in the
understory. In urban environments,
the root systems also destroy pavement,
requiring expensive repairs.
Other species of fl ora and fauna, such
as insects and birds, may indirectly be
affected due to the change in resource
diversity and availability. Norway maple
is also susceptible to certain types
of fungi, such as Verticillium wilt and
anthracnose and may also serve as a
host for aphids. There is a lot of additional
information readily available. I
hope this is helpful.
Jennifer from Cobble Hill
Busload of changes
Transit gurus kicked off a sweeping
overhaul of Brooklyn’s bus network
on Oct. 2.
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority launched its fi rst
ever borough-wide revamp of Kings
County’s bus system by talking to
straphangers at the Williamsburg
Bridge Plaza Bus Terminal in an
effort to bring faster and more reliable
service to the borough, according
to the agency.
“We’re taking a holistic, cleanslate
look at Brooklyn bus service.
By redesigning the bus network, we
can deliver more frequent, reliable
service that satisfi es the needs of the
borough,” reads a statement by the
agency’s Five Borough arm.
Transit honchos plan to re-examine
the borough’s 63 local and
nine express bus lines over the coming
year — some of which follow
old trolley or former elevated train
lines no longer in use — while looking
at ways to make them faster and
more reliable.
The renewed push to improve
the system comes as more and more
Brooklynites are opting against taking
the bus.
Readers made themselves heard
online:
The SBS Bus-dispensers are a terrible
waste of money. Especially when
they’re in street, thus always requiring
costly sidewalk and street renovatiins
along the entire bus route. The
least they could do is put them on the
bussess instead and upgrade them to at
least take credit and debit cards. Not everyone
always has a valid Metro-card
and very few usually carry around
$2.75 in change. At times, it’s actually
impossible to pay your fare. Since the
knuckleheads in DC will probably
never eliminate the evermore-worthless
dollar-bill; we need to make sure
that there is always a cashless fare
payment option. Hopefully the plans to
convert from the Metro card,to a debit
like card will assure that a bus ride
will cease to make us possibly have to
annoyingly beg for change?
SCR from Realityville
Skipping more stops is a terrible
idea. I’m 82 years old - fewer stops would
further cripple ability to get around for
old and handicapped people.
Florence Weintraub from
Windsor Terrace
The MTA should immediately move
to all-door boarding/exiting with people
paying their fare while they wait,
like it’s done with the SBS routes. That
way I can stop being angry at the idiots
who exit from the front of the bus.
Next, the MTA should consolidate
stops so the buses don’t stop every 2
blocks. Those two things will make
buses run faster.
Mike from Williamsburg
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