Greenwich Village Block Associations NewsAn Occasional Publication from the Greenwich Village Block Associations & An Open Community Forum |
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Tree Updateby Sharon Woolums (Chair) Washington Square Environmental CommitteeIn place of the unanimous decision of Community Board 2 (installing 2 monitoring wells to test watertable levels during construction of the NYU School of Law building), NYU intends to spend $10,000 treating the trees, deep feeding, aeration, etc. Extra care is needed, but isn't this a normal task of the Parks Department? Mr. Kenney from Bartlett, NYU's tree service, assures us that a watertable has nothing to do with the trees' health. Other reputable sources claim that artificially lowering water tables changes soil composition, affects plants, causes streams to dry up, etc. We hope Minetta Brook has not dried up from the Kimmel [NYU's student center) dig as it is important to the trees' health. In The Power of Water (New York Times, May 2, 1999), Lynn Ernann claims that Minetta Brook is visible as a hole in the ground filled with murky, slow-moving water under a grate in the basement of NYU's old Law School Building, Vanderbilt Hall. Since we are denied monitoring wells, observing this grate could serve as a poor substitute for deciphering what may have occurred to our brook. The geo-tech reports for both buildings may also provide insight. However bad for the trees, if there is no longer this slowly moving water, perhaps Minetta will no longer be a flooding problem in Village basements. If pumping caused the brook to dry up, obviously new pumping will create additional problems for the park's trees. One major flaw in the Parks Department's refusal to install monitoring wells is that nobody knows where the watertable actually is in the park. All measurements were taken at the two building sites across the street. The wells would tell us whether a lowered watertable was the reason for the fallen American Elm, the Horse Chestnut & other trees' demise and give information to help determine what kind of replacement trees are needed. There is a gaping hole in place of the lost American Elm. An equally large tree must be planted there, if the shadows created by the new building allow it. NYU's $10,000 contribution could help restore trees pruned to the trunk. The scary part is that dewatering will begin now in the midst of a drought, pumping 1.2 tons of water every 3 minutes, lowering the water table to bedrock for 5 months. The Parks Department may be grateful for the $200,000 NYU donates to the park (plus the $10,000 extra for the tree treatments). But $10,000 is a paltry sum compared to the cost of replacing just 1 tree. Because the interdependency between air, water and earth is complex, the WSEC has called for an independent study and believes that test wells (suggested by the Langan Engineering Company, hired by NYU) could provide an important piece to the puzzle. Monitoring wells could get to the bottom of the Minetta mystery. As for a park conservancy, the WSEC believes that any talk by any means about aiding our distressed Washington Sq. Park is great. However, in the January 29 Conservancy meeting, the distressed trees were unmentioned. That the Parks Department would discuss future possible care for the park, but blatantly ignore and refute the immediate concerns of CB2's unanimous resolution; (a simple request to put 2 monitoring wells in the park), is disappointing. A conservancy could work well depending on its structure and the membership's dedication devoid of politics, (i.e. some fear one party assuming control of the Board of Directors). Also there is concern that the conservancy should be considered only after the park restoration to insure that the conservancy be set up to maintain the park as stewards rather than defacto park owners. That could lead to private use problems, which have resulted from conservancy governance of other city parks. For sure, much money needs to be raised to replace our fallen trees. |