Commissioner’s Corner

This week, we highlight a tree-watering event in Oakwood, celebrate the opening of the redeveloped Rockaway Park, and recognize John Feeley for his instrumental role in the MillionTreesNYC program.

Oakwood Tree Watering
Last Wednesday, MillionTreesNYC held a tree-watering event in Oakwood, Staten Island as part of an effort to encourage New Yorkers to “Give a Little Tree L C” by watering new street trees during the hot summer months. As you probably know, watering is the most important thing you can do in the first few years of a tree’s life. Street trees need 15-20 gallons of water whenever temperatures are over 85 degrees, and it has not rained in more than a week. MTNYC has already hosted successful tree-watering events in Long Island City, Jamaica, and Parkchester this summer, but with over 612,000 new trees planted since Mayor Bloomberg created the MTNYC initiative, we still have a lot more work to do and a lot more trees to care for this summer. If you would like to learn more about the initiative or how to care for trees, please visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.

Rockaway Park Redevelopment
On Monday, I joined Mayor Bloomberg to cut the ribbon on the redevelopment of Rockaway Park in Queens, one of the eight regional parks being transformed under PlaNYC. The work at Rockaway Park included the construction of more than $29 million in new amenities, including a huge skateboard park, handball and basketball courts, playgrounds, climbing wall, performance space, water play area, synthetic turf field, accessible comfort station, and spectacular plantings featuring beautiful native beach grasses and shrubs.

Rockaway Park’s location allowed for the opportunity to make the most of the beachfront setting while providing much needed park facilities. In keeping with Mayor Bloomberg’s vision for a greener New York, the redeveloped park was designed with permeable surfaces to improve stormwater collection, as well as the protection and enhancement of natural habitats and coastal dunes. In the East Park, a large parking lot has been transformed into a rolling lawn for passive recreation and viewing events at a new performance venue. Adding to our MillionTreesNYC total, the project also included extensive tree plantings to provide shaded park areas.

I was proud to join the Mayor and so many terrific Parkies from Queens and the Olmsted Center in bringing a fantastic new open space to a community that really needs it.

Staff Spotlight
This week, we recognize John Feeley, Greenstreets Manager at Manhattan Forestry. John played an instrumental role in teaching MillionTreesNYC stewardship mini-grant recipients how to safely access water from hydrants to water street trees. Under the MillionTreesNYC hydrant access permit, a select number of active tree stewardship groups are authorized by the Department of Environmental Protection to use water from fire hydrants for the purpose of watering street trees during the hot summer months. Thanks to John, for the first time ever, stewards had an opportunity to participate in a hands-on training session to hone their skills. John not only demonstrated how to open, close, and attach a hose to a fire hydrant, but also conveyed the importance of safety measures to be followed. He patiently allowed each trainee to practice all the steps and answered numerous questions from the group. After the training, John went above and beyond by creating a step-by-step instruction sheet for the trainees to use in the future. Thank you John, for your important contribution to MillionTreesNYC and our stewards.

Sincerely,

Adrian Benepe

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves.”

Thomas A. Edison
(1847 - 1931)

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