By Roman Kruglov
A couple of weeks ago my brother sent me a link to a story on WNYC about the variable mortality rates for trees that were planted as part of New York City’s Million Trees initiative. We’ve seen the uneven outcomes of planting efforts like these before, and New York is no exception. Dedicated (volunteer) citizens who water and care for the trees are often the ones responsible for their survival, particularly during harsh summer months.
The reporter, Matthew Schuerman, found that Parks Department data from 2009 indicated a 3.4 percent mortality rate for the trees, which would be well within the expected range. According to WNYC’s analysis of more recent data from 2011 (obtained through a Freedom of Information Request), however, the mortality rate is as high as 12.1 percent.
I’m all too familiar with stories like this, and I scrolled to the bottom to see what commenters had to say. One stuck out at me:
This was written by Majora Carter, an urban revitalization strategy consultant who established Sustainable South Bronx and Green for All, and she had a point. A great point. What would it mean to treat trees and soils, known as green infrastructure here and elsewhere, as actual infrastructure? It certainly wouldn’t, for example, mean leaving planning in the hands of people without any training in urban forestry or tree biology, or leaving their care entirely up to volunteers or homeowners. As Carter points out, imagine if that was our approach to planning and maintaining other forms of infrastructure, such as pipes and sewers?
I asked three people with tons of experience in trees and in urban forestry – who are also frequent contributors to this blog – to pick just five things that would be necessary if we actually treated urban trees and soils (green infrastructure) as seriously as we do pipes, sewers, roads, and more (grey infrastructure).
Read more: http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/deeproot/285541/treating-trees-actual-infrastructure
Michel Fontaine 