“This tree is doing its best”: Why New Yorkers need to calculate and rate – Every Tree Garden | New York

oIn recent mornings, as the sun began to beat in late August, dozens of New Yorkers stood in the shadow of nearly 500 trees decorating Harlem, fearing that it would hurt its feelings.

We have identified the species – the bald cypress, thanks to its feather leaves and “strong cone shape”, measured the circumference of its trunk (17 inches; 43 cm) and pointed out that its roots look normal, its leaves are healthy, but its branches suffer some damage from incorrect pruning. But now, our task is to assign the tree an overall achievement – with “poverty” as a “excellent” scale – and no one seems to want to say it.

“Don’t feel like you’re judging trees,” said Sherlan Greaves, one of the New York City Parks Department staff. “You’re doing this for the health of trees.”

“Okay?” someone asked.

“It’s definitely a way to do our best,” Grea admits. “It might be better. Between good and fair.” (When I look back and check later, I see the volunteers who record our answers generously donated.)

This is New York City Number of treesThis is a decade-long census of urban forests, which has made this specific jungle live among 8.5 million people. The first time was conducted in 1995, the tree’s census was from Low technology Volunteers’ efforts to use clipboards and measuring tapes to quantify and classify street trees in cities into 2015 application-supported production Tree mapThis is an interactive database of about 666,000 street trees in the city.

Another 150,000 landscapes Parking trees Added to the 2017-2018 map, it is these park trees that will be the focus of volunteer tree counters for 2025 (the city is actually home to over 7 million trees, but those on private property and those on Central Park are the scope of the park department, and outside the scope of the park department, the city’s 6,800 acres of forest is not included in the individual number.)

This year, streets will be calculated and classified Ground lidar scanner installed on a car – Similar to the technology used by self-driving cars – Detailed scans will be provided for the Ministry of Parks to show the exact location of trees in the city’s busy street landscape.

Deputy Park Environment and Planning Commissioner Jennifer Greenfeld said in an interview that the Parks Department was considering using LiDAR technology to complete the entire project, but Deputy Park Director of Environment and Planning Jennifer Greenfeld said in an interview that data generated by driving the scanner to the park was “not good”. Perhaps more importantly, she added: “We can’t let people not get involved.”

Indeed, for some New Yorkers, tree census has become an obsession “Supercounter” volunteers In the last cycle, more than 3,000 trees were recorded per wood.

Although there weren’t these respectable super infamous in the training events I attended, the participants were a group of tree lovers. Among them is a New Yorker who hopes to work for the Park Department, Archives and Library Science professors, who are taking a day off to go there – “We are all librarians today, and we’re all sorting,” she told me – a project manager from Greenpoint who proudly trained her “Citizen Pruner Permit” and she was trained after completing 11 hours of training. (According to New Yorkers’ care for green spaces, the number of trees is an important entry point for New Yorkers. New York Treesa nonprofit organization, trains citizen trimmers to complement the official seven-year trimming cycle of the Parks Department.

Once we reached the top of the huge outcrop, the training began Manhattan Rock Schistglittering black bedrock erupted so much ground across the island and formed the center of Marcus Garvey Park. We started our investigation by updating a record of absolutely tricky honey locusts that was recorded as thornsFewer In 2015. Before we go to the next point on the map, the insect’s holes, hanging branches and some strangled roots are officially recorded in the mapping application: the black cherries we identified make up the unique “burning cornflakes” bark.

An ancient and huge tree of paradise – the 107-inch circumference of the trunk – although there are millions or even hundreds of species Spotted lanterns This gathers its trunks on plaques, such as impure-bred tree skin rashes. A few yards away, the tree map said that the place where it should be black cherries was a huge tree stump. The root of bondage Provides a silent explanation of its demise.

Why does the city have to do such a laborious process to calculate trees instead of relying on technology or sampling?

“Every time we do this, we think about it: ‘Why do we do this?’” “We manage each tree individually and keep records separately, so it’s very important for us to do a good job of things in our personal way.”

The census provides a point-in-time image describing the diversity and health of urban trees in five administrative districts and over 1,700 parks. The data collected will help inform the Ministry of Parks’ main initiatives, including plans Add the canopy cover of the city From 22% now to 2035. Like most public goods in New York City, trees are evenly distributed, and the census should also help mitigate efforts to mitigate Disproportionate “heat burden” Placed in communities where residents are more likely to be poor or people of color. It also provides a log of the progress the city has made, including in important tasks to increase tree diversity. this 1995 Tree Census There are about 70 species of trees; the current map records 541 species.

“We have learned our lessons from many different intrusions, whether it’s early Chestnut epidemic or Dutch elm diseaseReliance on too few species makes you vulnerable to different kinds of interference and storms. ” Greenhold said.

Honey locusts remain the most common street tree in Manhattan and the Bronx, while London planes, dominated by Pollock-style bark patterns, dominate Brooklyn and Queens, and Callery pears ranked first on Staten Island. London planes are allegedly “treasure” by powerful and influential urban planners Robert Mosesalthough Hurricane Sandy shows it is sensitive to salt water, despite its almost indestructible reputation being hit. Now, the department avoids planting them in areas where storms are expected to increase.

However, the city has been able to expand its tree diversity by changing its procurement practices and dealing directly with nurseries. Greenfield said this allowed them to buy trees like the Kentucky Coffeetree, an attractive shade tree that is “very resistant to stress from many cities” but early on it looked like a tortured “Charlie Brown Tree” that would otherwise be impossible.

What I think of is that when our group re-invested diversity at the end of the two-hour event, on the other day, when the U.S. president threatened military operations against city dwellers, he smeared it without any basis on theBloodDystopia. Here are New Yorkers of all ages, races and lives, learning together how to do something nerd and arcane, and then going out to do things in our own time, entertainment and common good.

As we were ready to take a separate approach, a volunteer returned to the group and pulled out his cell phone to show off the number of trees. Celebrities found: Huge pictures Osage Orange On Marcus Garvey’s park bench, the cracked trunk twists the sky, the city officially designatedThe great tree”. Everyone gathered, oh, mountain and ahing.