Summer Street Trees

The current ‘feels like’ on weather.com for New York City is 107 degrees! There is nothing like heat advisories and air quality alerts to make you appreciate the local street trees hard at work reducing heat and pollution. A couple of tree facts on this sweltering summer day:

• Trees can be a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single large tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. (USDA pamphlet # FS-363)
• Trees clean the air. Remove dust, particulates; absorb ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. (ISA Pamphlet, 1991)

Trees provide enormous environmental, human health and social benefits from lowing blood pressure and street crime to increasing property values and sales in local stores (you can find more facts at TreeLink.org, Plant-it 2020, and Walkable Communities). That’s why the Partnership works year-round to advocate for more trees in the area and to keep our street trees alive and healthy!

Last week, Greenzone Landscape Design cleaned, aerated, weeded, and mulched the tree pits along Myrtle and on corners of intersecting streets between Classon and Vanderbilt. And this week, they’ll begin the second phase of the project, continuing their work from Vanderbilt to Prince Street. You also may have noticed that young trees along Myrtle are outfitted with tree gators. These gators, filled once a week, deliver a deep watering by slowly releasing water into the tree’s roots and soil.