local ecologist

Manhole covers

2012-05-21T10:50:00.001-04:00

Image: Manhole cover, Valladolid, Spain

We have a new collection on Flickr: Manhole covers. The photoset contains manhole covers from London, and Madrid and Valladolid, Spain. We will add some from NYC soon. Check out The Booooooom Tumblr for photographs of beautiful Japanese manhole covers.

May blooms in the Sasaki Garden

2012-05-15T11:12:00.001-04:00

There are lots of flowers in the garden, and sepals, too.

You can look at what else is blooming around the country and the world at May Dreams Gardens' Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2012.

Marsh Botanic Gardens

2012-05-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

Our short photo-essay of the Marsh Botanic Gardens in New Haven has been published by Human Flower Project. Read "A Haven in New Haven" here.

Bird Watch: Thirsty pigeons

2012-05-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

Pigeons (and all of their relatives in the family Columbidae) have "unique drinking behavior" defined as "suck[ing] up water, using their beaks like straws.

Oasis in Greenwich Village

2012-05-01T14:37:00.000-04:00

New plants in the Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village.

We disagree with Atticus Brigham's description of this privately-owned, publicly-accessible green space as well as several public open spaces of the two Village superblocks as a "rural fantasy of bucolic oases shrouded by token greenery." Mr. Brigham is the deputy editor of Washington Square News.

#shortreads ahead

2012-04-28T20:01:00.001-04:00

Due to an injury we will be posting very #shortreads here and via @localecologist and on Facebook. Stay tuned for photos and videos, too.

Perspectives on trees in cities

2012-04-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

I read about the segment on tree-lined streets in San Francisco produced by Humankind in the Earth Day issue of the Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) e-newsletter. You can listen to a free excerpt here. The show's host, David Freudberg, interviewed regular FUF tree planter Charlie Starbuck and City of San Francisco's official urban forester Carla Short. The Humankind show page features two quotes taken from the interviews with Starbuck and Short which I think illustrate the gradient of positive perspectives on trees in cities. Here are the quotes:

Image: Tree planting at Ditmas Park West courtesy of Flatbush Gardener (source)

"[When people come together to plant street trees] it brings the neighborhood together. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been planting trees, and people that have been living on the same block for five or ten years have not met each other, and they’ll meet over planting a tree, and become good friends, as well as their children."

- Charlie Starbuck, volunter tree-planter, Friends of the Urban Forest

"Trees store carbon in their wood. They also create oxygen and -- and part of storing the carbon is absorbing the carbon dioxide. So a lot of people are aware that carbon dioxide contributes to global climate change, and trees will take up that carbon and store it in their wood…They also take up fine particulate matter. Which means that they can help clean the air for citizens. So in cities where asthma is more and more prevalent, trees can actually help contribute to a cleaner air for people."

- Carla Short, Urban Forester, City and County of San Francisco

Updated: Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree

2012-04-15T12:26:00.000-04:00

Image: Stuyvesant pear tree, N.E. corner of 13th & 3rd Ave, NYC (source)

A pear tree belonging to Peter Stuyvesant once grew on the corner of E. 13th Street and Third Avenue. Former governor Stuyvesant owned a bouwerij* (farm) in the area. Excerpted from an article in The Villager:

The spot was once home to what was believed to have been the oldest tree in New York City, planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant, the former Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, after he brought it from Holland. The spot became known as “Pear Tree Corner.” However, in 1857, two horse-drawn carriages collided and plowed into the tree, killing it. Kiehl’s was founded in 1851, and used to be on the corner, where it was called Pear Tree Pharmacy, for Stuyvesant’s tree.

A Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) was planted in honor of Stuyvesant's tree in 2003.

The original pear would have been a different species of Pyrus, most likely Pyrus communis (European pear).

*A major native American footpath - Bowery Lane - was named for Stuyvesant's bouwerji and is now known as Bowery. The neighborhood surrounding the street is sometimes also referred to as Bowery.

Update, April 15, 2012:

Reader "Erica" commented that on April 13, 2012, "in the country of birth of Peter Stuyvesant, Holland, an ice cream with the taste of pear was presented. This is part of the many festivities around his 400th birthday that should be happening in 2012. The festivities take place in his municipality of birth Weststellingwerf. Peter Stuyvesant was born in Peperga (on walking distance from my house if you are a brisk walker, hehe)." For more details, see
http://www.blikopweststellingwerf.nl/nieuws/item/509-%E2%80%98stuyvesant-400-perenijs%E2%80%99-in-wolvega-gepresenteerd.

Note: Originally published on November 29, 2010.

Boston (Apple) Tree Party

2012-04-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

Image: Boston Tree Party Inauguration, April 10, 2011 (source)

The first place we saw a Boston Tree Party apple tree was on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The Greenway was the site of the organization's inauguration in April 2011 with "a marching band, speeches, flags, buttons and banners" akin to a political party. The organization is also modeled on a political party with delegations (more later) and conventions. The Boston Tree Party was founded by Lisa Gross as her thesis project for her MFA degree from Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Image: East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, May 14, 2011 (source)

Last year, the Boston Tree Party planted 70 heirloom apple trees (or 35 pairs) with over 50 different communities. In four years, these 70 trees can produce 10,000 - 15,000 apples per year. Need more wow? An apple trees can live between 50 to 100 years -- that's a lot of apples! If you are wondering why the apples are planted in pairs here's the explanation: apples require heterogeneous pairs to cross-pollinate and bear fruit. Would you like to see one of the 35 pairs? Visit Carney Hospital in Dorchester, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Grand Familias – a low-income housing community for grandparents raising grandchildren--in Dorchester, Harvard University’s Student Garden, First Church in Somerville, or the Boston Latin School on the Fenway.

Image: East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, May 14, 2011 (source)

Community groups interested in planting pairs of apple trees aka "delegations" must meet several requirements (access to two pieces of land that are each 15’ in diameter with well-drained soil and receive 6-8 hours of sun per day and no more than a "medium" level of lead; access to a water source; and "the passion and commitment to care for these trees"). Each delegation pays $325 for a kit of materials including "two semi-dwarf apple tree whips of New England heritage varieties". Delegations receive support from the Apple Alliance which offers "free and low-cost organic fruit tree workshops". We would like to see a list of the courses on offer -- and assume they would cover planting, pruning, harvesting, cooking, and even preserving.

Image: Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition/The Josiah Quincy School, April 29, 2011 (source)

The 2012 deadline for applications is April 15th and interested schools, churches, businesses, libraries, health centers, clubs & civic organizations, neighborhood/homeowner associations, etc. should contact Amory Sivertson: Amory at bostontreeparty.org.

Image: Tech Networks of Boston/Southie Trees/South Boston Grows/Paraclete Academy, May 14, 2011 (source)

If you've got apples, try baking the Boston Tree Party Apple Pie.

Pelicans and other birds in the Royal Parks

2012-03-31T11:51:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago we visited several of the Royal Parks in London. The Royal Parks are Bushy Park, The Green Park, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Regent's Park & Primrose Hill, Richmond Park, and St James's Park.

We were impressed by the number and diversity of water and garden birds that inhabit the various parks. Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Crow, and Pelican were unusual sightings for us. Our favorite were the pelicans at St. James's Park and we recorded two of the pelicans living in the 58-acre park which is located in the center of London. According to the St. James's Park website there are three Eastern or Great White Pelicans and one American White Pelican. (A 2006 BBC article describes the population as four Eastern Whites and one Louisiana Brown.)

Of the Royal Parks, Pelicans (Pelecanus) are only found in St. James's Park where they were first introduced in 1684, a gift to King Charles II by a Russian ambassador. The birds have been immortalized in the popular children's book A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino (he also wrote A Walk in New York).

James R. Urban, FASLA critiques tree stabilization

2012-03-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Not long after reading James R. Urban's essay arguing against automatically staking newly planted trees in the January 2012 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine I saw an example of a tree that had been staked too long and improperly. Urban recommends above ground staking with arbor tie tape and in most cases, removal after the first growing season. Read an excerpt of the essay here and the full article is available with a subscription to LAM.

Two favorite early spring flowering trees

2012-03-24T11:58:00.002-04:00

My favorite spring flowering trees are the Callery pear and the ornamental cherry. I particularly like the pair of Callery pears on West 4th near Greene Street and the three large weeping cherries in the southwest quadrant of the Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village. What are your favorite spring bloomers?

View more photographs in the Early-Spring Flowering Trees Flickr photoset.

Winter Walk-Off 2012 in London

2012-03-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

Les of A Tidewater Gardener is hosting his Winter Walk-Off again this year. Read our contribution to the 2011 Walk-Off here. This year we share photographs of several features we observed on our walks in London. If you would like to contribute to the walk-off, the deadline is March 19 and details can be found here.

The spread of London planetrees at Hyde Park.

Allees, malls, and other linear arrangements of trees (also taken in Hyde Park).

Lovely utility access covers.

Mews and alleys to shorten your journey or to bypass busy roads.

Creative, adventurous playgrounds.

So many private squares -- nice to look at though but even better if you have a key...

Gorgeous architecture! This photograph of the original Natural History Museum (entry is free).

Thoughtful historic preservation, at the V&A Museum (also free entry): "The damage to these walls is the result of enemy bombing during the blitz of the Second World War 1939-1945 and is left as a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict."

In full swing

2012-03-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

Image: Belt seat swings, Hester Street Playground, Manhattan

The recent recall of Landscape Structures "Slalom Glider" reminded us that we had not written about playgrounds or play spaces since last October. Also, we only have two essays in the "At play" series. In this post we consider the older belt seat swing and the newer flat seat swing .

Image: Flat seat swings, Washington Square Park, Manhattan

The belt seat swing is often listed as the "standard belt seat" in play equipment catalogues. It is made of molded rubber; thick yet flexible and adjusts to the anatomy of the swinger. On the other hand, the flat seat swing can be made of vulcanized rubber or more commonly rigid high-density polyethylene (aka HDPE). HDPE is light weight but it does not conform to the swinger's "seat" nor does it "stick" to certain types of fabric. Both factors often lead to slippage for children who are transitioning from the infant/toddle bucket swing which are typically constructed of molded rubber. The tire swing seems easier to master than the flat seat swing.

Image: Flat seat swings and infant/toddler bucket swings, First Park, Manhattan

Are the swing sets in your favorite playground outfitted with belt seats or flat seats?

New York City's animal geography

2012-03-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

Wildlife in New York City is the subject of an essay by Traci Warkentin in the March 2012 issue of AAG Newsletter. AAG (American Association of Geographers) held its annual conference in New York City last week.

The specific geographic focus of Warkentin's article was Central Park and she writes, "At 843 acres, spanning from 59th to 110th Street, Central Park alone provides habitat for multitudes of animals and a wide diversity of species." I learned that "over 275 species of migrating birds" use the park as a stopover; rats, raccoons, piegons, geese are common; and owls, herons, bats, red-tailed hawks, rabbits, and turtle are less so. Warkentin also mentions the unseen and rarely seen invertebrates, pollinators, detritivors, and decomposers. The essay ends with a description of the Animal Geography Specialty Group of the AAG and its mission "to enhance geographic research and scholarship on matters relating to human-animal studies."

The N/R train stops at 5th Avenue and 59th Avenue adjacent to Central Park. This station stop is decorated with glass tile mosaics of animals as well as of leaves of trees found in the park. Knowing about the diversity of animals that inhabit and use the park, I am surprised that this diversity is not better represented in station's art. (I do not know if other subway stations adjacent to the park have animal art.) The reason I found is that the artist, Ann Schaumburger, designed "Urban Oasis" (1997) "to appeal to children and to the child in the adult" and used animals at the Central Park Zoo as her models.

Central Park is famous for its non-captive animals such as the nesting pairs of red-tailed hawks (Palemale, Lola, etc.). The hawks are the subject of children's book such as City Hawk (Meghan McCarthy) and The Tale of Pale Male (Jeanette Winter) as well as fiction such as Red-Tails in Love (Marie Winn). Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife is Winn's second book. Winn also maintains the Central Park Nature News blog; if you are interested in blogs about hawks in New York City, see Roger_Paw, Urban Hawks, and Washington Square Park Blog.

For an entrancing tale of animal geography, we recommend Jon Evans's Beasts of New York populated with red-tailed hawks, squirrels, robins, dogs, cats, rats, bluejays, pigeons, crows, coyotes, tigers, and more. (For a theoretical introduction to animal geography, read Jennifer Wolch's chapter "Zoopolis" in Animal Geographies: Place, Politics and Identity in the Nature-Culture Borderlands edited by Wolch and Jody Emel.)

Preserving the Great Outside in NYC

2012-02-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

New York City's open spaces and landscapes are the focus of the Historic Districts Council's 18th Annual Preservation Conference titled "The Great Outside: Preserving Public and Private Open Spaces. The conference will be held this weekend, March 2 - 4, 2012, and the slate of speakers is impressive:

Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FARR, and founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation;
Thomas J. Campanella, associate professor of urban planning and design at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will address Moses-era parks;
Alexandra Wolfe, preservationist at the Society for the Preservation of Long Island;
Thomas Mellins, curator and architectural historian of mid-century public housing landscapes; and
Evan Mason, independent scholar of New York City rear yards.

As an aside, Campanella is the author of one of our favorite books, Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm (2003). Also Charles Birnbaum has written about Hideo Sasaki and the Sasaki Garden at Washington Square Village, a privately-owned by publicly-used green space in the Greenwich Village neighborhood that is one of our "sacred places".

The conference is offering ~~five~~ four walking tours and one bike tour on Sunday: (1) Woodland Cemetery, Bronx, with Susan Olsen of Friends of Woodlawn Cemetery; (2) Sunnyside Gardens, Phipps Houses, and Woodside Houses, Queens, with Jeffrey A. Kroessler; (3) North Shore Waterfront and Greenbelt, Staten Island, with Linda Eskenas; (4) Midtown Plazas, Manhattan, with Matthew Postal; and (5) Bike the Williamsburg and Greenpoint Waterfront, Brooklyn. You can download the conference brochure here.

HDC maintains a Tumblr site which includes amazing photographs of open space in New York City. We cannot attend the conference but if you do, we would like to hear about your experience so please leave a comment.

Tag, you are an ALB-free, Fraxinus pennsylvanica

2012-02-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

The "first official U.S. identification" of ALB or Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) was in Brooklyn in August of 1996 but infestations have been found in Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island and elsewhere. The beetle is a hardwood pest native to China. Its preferred host tree species are maple, horsechestnut, birch, elm, willow, poplar, sycamore/London planetree, hackberry, and mountain-ash. The female beetle will also lay her eggs in green ash trees.

Last fall we observed Davey Tree crews climbing London planetrees, Norway and red maples, and green ash in our neighborhood and were told that NYC Parks had contracted them to assess public trees for infestation. Since then I have noticed yellow dots at the base of many trees such as the one at the base of the trunk of the green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) pictured above on Charles Street near Bleecker.

The ash has another tag: a botanical label indicating its common and Latin names. The marker indicates that this ash is part of the NYC Parks Sidewalk Arboreta program though the link to the program is broken. If you have photos of "Sidewalk Arboreta" trees, please share them with us.

All is not peachy for Quercus phellos

2012-02-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

The grove of oaks on Bleecker Street between LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street have always fascinated us. They are growing in a lawn beloved by playing children, relaxing mothers, and squirrels and pigeons. The ledge of the south side of the grove is well-used, too, by couples, sunbathers, and climbing children. Most of the oaks in the grove are red oaks (Quercus rubra) but some are willow oaks. In fact, there are six willow oaks (Q. phellos). The species is also known as peach oak. Two of the willow oaks are in poor condition: decaying tissue and mushrooms are visible. Frequent mushroom associations are Pluteus mammillatus and Nigroporus vinosus. I cannot identify the mushroom in the photos below. Can you?

The willow oak is an S1 listed species under the New York Natural Heritage Program (NYNHP) which means it is "endangered/critically imperiled in New York because of extreme rarity (typically 5 or fewer populations or very few remaining individuals) or is extremely vulnerable to extirpation from New York due to biological factors", but only naturally occurring individuals or populations are considered. The willow oaks in the grove on Bleecker Street were planted. If willow oaks sprouted in the Bleecker grove, would they listed as S1 plants by the NYNHP? These oaks will be negatively impacted by the proposed NYU 20-year campus expansion plan though the university states in the NYU 2031 EIS (Chapters 6, 9) that it "would commit to a tree maintenance plan." NYNHP states that the existing natural populations are stable but "could be eliminated at any time since none are protected."

New York is the northern limit of the willow oak and within the state "there are five existing native populations, but except for one population of tens of trees, there are only a few trees in the other populations. There is one historical population on Long Island and one on Staten Island...." The willow oak is a common street tree in New York City and can be found in parks, too. In New York City Trees, Edward Sibley Barnard (2002) lists a park each in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island were willow oak trees can be found.

Book Review: Paradise Lust by Brook Wilensky-Lanford

2012-02-06T12:08:00.004-05:00

Paradise Lust cover via brookwilensky-lanford.com (source)

In Paradise Lust Brook Wilensky-Lanford chronicles 16 searches for the Garden of Eden. The quest for the Garden is international in scope from Venezuela to Syria and Zambia to the North Pole. I wanted to read the book for two reasons. First, the author is an alum of my alma mater and second, the book title and jacket cover illustrations are intriguing. Furthermore, I borrowed the book from the library for leisure reading but so enjoyed the content and writing style that I wanted to share a review with our readers.

While reading the book I discovered that it is about trees! The Tree of Knowledge is a central figure in the biblical tale of the Garden of Eden and is usually assumed to be an apple tree. However, "apple" is an old word for fruit tree. Wilensky-Lanford adds arboreal specificity to the tales of the Tree: a fig in Babylon, a sequoia relative in the North Pole, pitch pine in Peebles, Ohio, and a willow-currant hybrid in the Creation Museum in Kentucky. While trees figure largely in the book, Wilensky-Lanford also focuses on river and marsh ecologies and the role these ecosystems played in claims about Eden.

Paradise Lust is more than a straightforward retelling of other people's stories. The book contains an extensive annotated bibliography and the list of sources for the photographs and illustrations suggest much time perusing in domestic and international archives. I find it useful to situate authors within a cohort based on writing style and Brook Wilensky-Lanford reminds me of Sarah Vowell (of The Wordy Shipmates, Unfamiliar Fishes, etc.). I hope Wilensky-Lanford has a long career!

The Astor Place beaver

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

As soon as I sighted the beaver plaque at the Astor Place subway station, shown above, I recalled a passage from Eric Jay Dolan's Fur, Fortune, and Empire about John Jacob Astor, his astute real estate acumen, the places in New York that bear his name and those he once owned that do not, and his role in the beaver fur trade. Here is an excerpt from a most excellent chronicle of the North America fur trade:

Not one to let his money sit idle, Astor plowed his growing profits from the fur trade into real estate. His first purchase came in 1789, when he bought two lots of land on Bowery Lane for a little more than six hundred dollars....Over the years many of Astor's associates ridiculed his real estate transactions, especially those in which he acquired empty land well beyond the city proper. They said he had wasted money on dirt and trees, but when the city expanded right up to the edge of Astor's holdings, he sold or rented his "worthless" land for enormous sums--including all of what would one day become Times Square. When he was very old, Astor was asked if he had accumulated an excessive amount of real estate, to which he replied, "COuld I begin life again, knowing what I now know, and had money to invest, I would buy every foot of land on the Island of Manhattan."...Unwilling to sit on his laurels or his growing fortune, he was looking for ways to expand his operations and earn more. And soon after Lewis and Clark returned from their epic journey, Astor's gaze shifted westward. (pages 193-194)

The beaver, "a source of the Astor family wealth from fur trading," is depicted in a terra cotta and mosaic plaque by the Grueby Facience Company in 1940, according to nycsubway.org and the Arts for Transit website. (Aside: The latter website has been redesigned and is easier to navigate.)

Suburban setback in Manhattan

2012-01-23T15:48:00.001-05:00

Walking towards Park Avenue on 38th Street, I saw the change in the streetscape before I reached the source. On an overcast day, the bright, airiness conveyed by a gap in the building line was very noticeable. 152 East 38th Street has a generous setback, a gorgeous pair of gates, and a handsome three-story Federal Revival brick house. The area was originally part of an estate belonging to a member of President Martin Van Buren's family, wrote Christopher Gray of the New York Times. The house was completed in 1857 by contractor and owner Patrick McCafferty. Its 60 foot setback was unusual for a house of that period. The house was landmarked in 1989 by the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation. A history of the house's owners and occupants can be read at Daytonian in Manhattan.

Polis: NYU Expansion Threatens Greenwich Village Green Space

2012-01-20T12:08:00.002-05:00

Our essay about greenspaces and wildlife at risk in Greenwich Village was published on polis on January 19, 2012. We would like to thank Polis for affording us the opportunity to share this story with their readers.

2012-01-18T12:03:00.002-05:00

We support the #SOPASTRIKE but our blog does not recognize the code.

What is wrong with this picture?

2012-01-13T13:24:00.000-05:00

Image: "Superblock Interim Condition" slide (page 11), NYU 2031 Land Use (source)

The vegetation in southwest section of the Sasaki Garden is missing (see above) on page 11 of the powerpoint presentation that NYU made at the Community Board 2 Zoning & Land Use Hearing on January 9th.

The actual state of the southwest section of the garden is show above. The omission of vegetation certainly supports the university's claim that green space would increase with its campus expansion plan in the superblocks below Washington Square Park. Also, note the language used to describe the graphic -- "interim condition" -- implying a temporary state.

Tulip tree allee at New York Botanical Garden

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Described as "a signature planting", the tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipfera) that form the allée leading to the Library Building at the New York Botanical Garden were planted in 1905 alternating among poplars which were originally planted in 1903 by Nathaniel Lord Britton. The poplars did not fulfill Briton's vision and were removed by 1911.

We have featured alleés in Frankfurt, in Berlin, and as precursors to tree-lined streets.