The Treedom Project

WHAT MAKES A TREE GUARD, GREAT?

Some nice looking tree guards went up recently at a construction site on the corner of Olive and Orient in Williamsburg. These tree guards stood out next to a lot of the tree guards I see for a couple of reasons. This brings up the question: "what makes a tree guard, great?" Let's discuss. 

These particular tree guard specimens are excellent for three reasons. First of all, structurally, they provide a tall and sturdy frame for the trees that will guard the trunks from construction crews, vehicles, tools, and other heavy machinery that enter and exit the site. They are going to build a high- occupancy, luxurious, fancy-pants building on this site that will undoubtedly see its fair share of earth movers, bull dozers, dump trucks, cement mixers, supply semis, in addition to other diesel-fueled engines (with the tendency to idle) pass through the main gates.  Secondly, the durable plastic webbing will help prevent trash from entering the tree pits. This is beneficial to maintaining healthy root systems. Construction sites are notorious for being dumps full of trash. I am very pleased to see the builders took this in to consideration when guarding the trees. This level of precaution covers what the frames do not and I am darn relieved to see them as part of the guards.  Lastly, look closely and you'll notice the webbing is bright cautionary orange. This serves as a visual alert and reminder. It's says: "HEY IM OVER HERE AND IMPORTANT, DO NOT MESS WITH ME!" I suspect the orange might fade over time depending on the length of the project, but its good to see the precedent being set.

QUEENS RESIDENT KIRSTEN DUCKETT IS A TREE HERO. BELOW IS HER STORY ABOUT ENLISTING THE HELP OF A MYSTERY MAN IN A BAT MAN SHIRT TO FREE A LONDON PLANE TREE ON HER ASTORIA STREET.

(Before)

How long had you noticed the chain around the tree?

When I moved to a new apartment in Astoria, I had a new commute and on the way to the subway station everyday, I would see a plane tree with a big chain around it. It was clear that someone had been using it as a parking spot because there was a second, padded chain through the first and both were fixed at about the height of a moped. As I passed by, I noticed that the chain was digging into the bark. It had been there a long time and it made me sad for almost a year as I passed back and forth. In the end, this story has a happy ending because a man in a Batman T-shirt helped me to free the tree!

What made you think to remove it?

The chained tree was not dead, but how long could it withstand this confinement? I suspected that the dry cleaners or the restaurant just in front of it were responsible for the chain, and I thought about asking them to remove or to loosen it so that the bark could heal and the sap could flow. As I passed by every day, I kept a watch and I never saw a vehicle attached to the chain. There were delivery vehicles next to the tree, but not attached. So whose chain was it?

Later, I was sorry that I had been so slow to talk to the personnel in the two businesses directly.  I needn't have been nervous because they were perfectly reasonable. They didn't know anything about how the chain got there and had no stake it its staying.  According to them, the chain had been there as long as they could remember. I told them that it was hurting the tree and that it needed to be clipped off. They gave me their blessing to do it. The dry cleaner and I had a good chat about plants and trees.

The next stop was the local hardware store where I explained the problem and asked for help in solving it. Surely they had bolt cutters. But I ran up against some resistance there. I couldn't decide if I was unlucky or mistaken. After the second unsuccessful trip there, I decided I needed some outside support.

Had you previously heard about The Treedom Project? How did you learn about Treedom Project?

At the same time I was canvassing the neighbors, I got in touch with the Treedom Project.  In Greenpoint, I had seen a laminated sign attached to a rusty bike which was in turn attached to a tree. The sign was a notice that on a particular day, the tree would be unchained and anyone claiming the bike should take it before then. "How cool is that?" I thought, and noted down the website. I had never seen Treedom active in my neighborhood, but maybe there were sympathizers nearby. When I contacted Treedom with an address, a description and pictures, they were happy to help, but it was out of their way and it would take a few weeks to get out to Astoria. Because of personal travel plans, I was impatient to see that tree unchained so I tried again at the local hardware store.

(After)

How easy was it to convince the hardware store to loan you the bolt cutters? How long did it take to clip the lock? 

My approach with the hardware store was to ask for a volunteer to clip the chain.  It was a chain similar to the one I had bought from them to lock up my bike. I was told I should speak to the locksmith. I was told I should speak to a specific person who wasn't there. The words 'community service' were not giving me the warm welcome I had hoped so after my second trip I tried to figure out what my budget was for paying them to walk two blocks and help undo human damage, but I would ask for pro bono assistance one more time first. Three's the charm because on my third trip to the hardware store, the locksmith was present and in discussion with another young man, the guy wearing the Batman T-shirt. When I presented my request as cheerfully as possible, the locksmith said cautiously, 'You want me to do it for free.' At the same time, the customer/friend piped up, 'If you lend me the bolt cutters, I'll do it for free!'. My hero! Lending material pro bono was within the scope for the hardware store. Batman loped the two blocks with me the the tree and within 5 minutes, the tree was breathing easy again and the bolt cutters were returned to the store. It took two snips by a strong man. I stopped off at the deli and got the guys something cold to drink to thank them for their efforts. 

Did any passersby ask what you were doing?

My interaction with the neighbors was really talking to the shop owners in front of the tree. I did mention that do volunteer work for Parks and on my second trip I had armed myself with an outreach flyer from Million Trees NY but that was probably not even necessary as everyone was super nice. I tried to teach Batman about tree health and the role of the phloegm, but he already knew about it!

We ventured to the Lower East Side recently to set free a young tree from a brutally placed bicycle u-lock.  This was our first mission in Manhattan and as you can see from the before-during-after photo sequence above it was a success. 

There is a restaurant near my house whose delivery bikers constantly lock their bikes to the young Japanese Pagoda out front. Last week I requested a CityRack parking circle to be placed in front of the restaurant through this DOT request form. Today, I found a amazingly informational StreetFilms video that illustrates everything you need to know about bike rack placement in New York City. After a recent survey of the restaurant and its surrounding areas just earlier this morning, I believe my request to fit the within the placement guidelines, and will add an update once I know more. 

If you witness trees misused as bike racks in your community please consider requesting a CityRack from the city, it takes three minutes. 

In the meantime I am going to talk to the restaurant manager to see if he could instruct his drivers to park on the nearby street signs and lamp post AND to see if they would mind watering the tree once or twice a week like they've done at Acqua uptown. Updates forthcoming. 

On a recent Saturday earlier in the month a group of TreesNY Citizen Tree Pruners gathered in Queens for an afternoon of pruning, and boy did we have a good time.  After meeting at 24th Avenue near the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden we got right in to it, cleaning up some of the trees on 24th Ave and 29th street including two Japanese Zelkovas, a Red Oak, and an American Elm. For many members of the group (myself included) it was our first time using pole pruners and pole saws. These are really useful tools when pruning trees as they can stretch out to a maximum length of 15 feet (pictured above). One of the main rules for Citizen Tree Pruners is that you must keep both feet on the ground at all times, so pole tools are essential especially for more mature trees. 

On one tree right outside Elias's Corner for Fish we discovered a strand of old Christmas lights way up in the tree that our leader Sam remarked "have probably been up there since the Clinton first term inauguration night". In some places the tree had eaten the lights, but in many others we were able to cut the lights down, and in some instances prevent girdling on some of the branches. Phew.

                                         (Always remain alert for the Emerald Ash Borers, aka Tree Killers) We then broke in to two groups of about 10 people and headed down either side of the very residential 28th street, pruning both young and more mature trees the whole time. We spoke to and informed many residents about our mission, who were in turn delighted with our undertaking. 

After a fruitful hour or so of pruning, we arrived on the corner of 28th street and 23rd avenue with a couple of refuse bags full of clippings. We identified one last badly in need of pruning. After clipping away all of the low-hanging, sidewalk blocking branches we discovered a lazy electricians shocking solution on dealing with excess wire. Somebody had taken about 30 feet of thick, heavy leftover, electrical wiring which was dangling from the nearby power lines and wrapped it many times around the trunk of the tree on the corner, which of course was when the excitement levels of the afternoon really peaked...

As you can imagine this wired catastrophe did not sit well with the our group.  And since we were a little unsure of how to handle such a situation we decided to start by calling 311. After a few minutes of an unusual 311 conversation we heard the loud siren of a nearby fire truck racing down 23rd Ave.

The fire fighters showed up, talked with a couple of us members of the group and then proceeded to get out the bolt cutters. Bolt cutters is one of the least popular but most effective (and a personal favorite of this tree pruner) tools to use when removing items from trees. After declaring that the line was actually "not live" one of the young and huge firemen was able to clip the wiring from the tree and save the day. I noticed that the firemen took great joy in lending us urban arborists a hand and saving the tree. Firemen rock, lazy electricians do not.

After that we called it a day, headed back to the Beer Garden, drank a cold one and cooled off underneath the cool tree canopy.