My Tree NYC: Beautiful Tree Bed Contest

The Alliance for Downtown New York recruited volunteers from Lower Manhattan recently to work together to beautify Water Street by planting flowers in tree beds. This spot, in front of 1 New York Plaza, is one of the 24 beds that were spruced up to enlive

You're walking through the streets of New York City on a sweltering summer day. You feel that familiar glistening bead of sweat trickle down your forehead, as it does each year when you switch your calendar to July. Then suddenly a cool and refreshing blanket of shade drapes over your entire body like a gentle ocean wave upon the shore. To what do you owe this unexpected yet desperately needed hiatus from the suns unwavering rays? Trees! You have just experienced one of the many benefits that trees have to offer us in an urban environment. In addition to shade, trees increase air quality, absorb carbon dioxide, help retain stormwater and prevent pollution from entering groundwater and rivers, help reduce the Urban Heat Island effect and cool down the city, help residents cut energy costs by reducing the need for air conditioning and heat, and so much more! In order for us to keep experiencing these numerous and vital benefits, we must care for our city's street trees. As part of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC, the MillionTrees initiative aims to plant 1 million trees in the five boroughs of NYC by 2017.

This summer MillionTreesNYC began the city’s first My Tree NYC: Beautiful Tree Bed Contest to do just that. The contest promotes stewardship by encouraging street tree stewards of the five boroughs to beautify their street tree beds. A digital photo of their beautified tree bed can be uploaded to an application on the MillionTreesNYC Facebook page through August 3, 2012; fans of the MillionTreesNYC Facebook page can then vote for their favorite tree bed to win the contest. In addition to a fun and proactive day outside beautifying their neighborhood, winners will receive an official NYC Parks tree bed plaque displaying the category in which they won, recognition at a ceremony in Central Park, a gift card to home depot, some MillionTreesNYC merchandise. So beautify a tree bed, enter the contest, and help us care for the street tree's of New York City!

Submitted by Caroline Confort, Central Forestry Intern

EXHIBITION AND LECTURE AT POE PARK VISITOR CENTER

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
Invites you to a lecture at the Poe Park Visitor Center:

Flock House and a Dominican Schoolroom
Local Resources for Building Resilient Homes, Schoolrooms, and Communities

With:
Lonny Grafman, the Sustainability Advisor for the Flock House Project, an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University.

Friday, July 27, 2012
2:00 p.m.

Poe Park Visitor Center
Poe Park (Grand Concourse and 192nd Street)
Bronx, New York

Please join us for a forum on sustainable living, presented in conjunction with a series of photographs, preparatory drawings, and artifacts documenting the Flock House Project.

It is easy to feel helpless in this age of environmental concern- a time when each of us is faced with the daunting responsibility of ensuring the health of our planet. In this lecture, Lonny Grafman explains various green technologies and their potential impact on our environment, including rainwater capture, renewable energy, sustainable living, and alternative building materials. Pointing to The Flock House Project and his recent construction of a schoolhouse in Santo Domingo crafted entirely of plastic bottles, papercrete, concrete, and industrial waste, Grafman will share his experiences on these revolutionary ways in which anyone can “shrink their footprint.”

Seating is limited.
To RSVP, please email:
artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov

In conjunction with the exhibition
The Flock House Project at Poe Park Visitor’s Center by Mary Mattingly
In the Poe Park Visitor’s Center, July 24 – August 15, 2012
The Public Artwork on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts through September 20th and at Van Cortlandt Park from August 1 - 15

The Flock House Project is a group of self-contained ecosystems whose design was inspired by patterns of global human migration, immigration, and pilgrimage. These mobile living systems, which are inhabited by artists, promote and implement a wider adaptation of “green” technologies—including hands-on opportunities to learn about rainwater capture, inner city agriculture, solar energy technologies, and scalable, transportable living spaces.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”

Bertrand Russell
(1872 – 1970)

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