Prospect Park. I stopped counting fallen trees. I have seen the park after a tornado, after storms, after a freak snowfall. The park has lost a lot of trees in the last two years, and now this.
Yesterday there were too many downed trees to count.
But crews were sawing away.
They seemed to come from Michigan.
Michigan!***
They meant business.
They worked.
They left neat piles.
They laid neat branch hedges flanking paths
They made me want lots of logs.
Their trucks and eighteen wheeler and a camper were parked on the southern part of the drive around the park.
Thank you, Michigan.
Funny how New York can't get organized help to parts of Staten Island and Long Island but Michigan can get exert crews to Prospect Park.
If I find out more, I'll post more. I can't find anything online. Yet.
We saw the southern and eastern and western sides of the park. All edges and roads are being cleared.
But this is the Midwood, where the Litter Mob worked for a year, and where it was business as usual as far as the cruising trade was concerned. A handful of patrons stood around thumbing its smart phones.
The crews have not reached this part yet.
And so it goes.
*** The Prospect Park Alliance says that the crews were from the US Forestry Service.
*** The Prospect Park Alliance says that the crews were from the US Forestry Service.
They'd probably give you as many logs as you want. Just ask.
ReplyDeleteWe sent power crews from Alabama, our local news reported. With as many hurricanes as we have endured, it just seems fitting to go help others.
I think so, too. The problem is I have no log space :-)Thank you for sending your power crews!
DeleteI'm guessing Michigan tree gave the best bid. Or the trucks are registered in Michigan, but the company is based elsewhere. If they had plaid and a blue ox, well sure the upper Midwest!
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, there's no money in helping, but there is in cuttin trees.
Frank - it's just so good to see people working their tails off in that park. I'm accustomed to seeing (with rare exceptions) slow-as-you-go.
DeleteI'm often impressed with the work ethic of those elsewhere. Particularly in places where work is hard to find. And, you know, they probably enjoy showing us how it's done.
DeleteI have a few deep rooted (oops, pun!) parochial alliances, one of them is with Michigan. Yay, Michigan, and so sad to lose all those trees. We need all the trees we can get. When will the (I hope) new planting start? I love your selection of posts.
ReplyDeleteThe new planting. I wish I knew.
DeleteProbably two things. The power companies have an agreement to help each other. Trucks were lined inrichmond sunday night waiting to go where they were needed most.
ReplyDeleteAnd, there may be a "cut it, cart it, sell in and keep the money" agreement. We did a lot of that after isabel.
Wouldnt it bt nice - if ironic - if sandy got mid- park " too" cleaned up and causd the crowd to move elsewhere.
My dear wife, Deborah, was a gifted journalist who focused on the need to protect and preserve historic landscape and its tangible amenities, including trees, creeks, structures and Civil War battlefields. Deb was the very first writer to put into print the phrase, "Witness Tree"--meaning of course a tree that existed at a time when historic events occurred beneath its branches. (This criteria is usually reserved for trees in excess of 150 years of age.) The Gettysburg Battlefield is full of "witness trees," for example, and so is Central Park.. And at least one of those trees in Prospect Park appears to be a witness tree..
ReplyDeleteBut Deborah would be the first to observe that the loss of any beautiful tree is tragic, and if I showed her these pictures, she would quickly avert her glance and shed a tear--as I am sure many have already done.
All those beautiful trees down...sad
ReplyDeleteThe power companies do have reciprocal agreements. New Brunswick Power sent 6 crews, with experience in post blizzard and ice storm experience, to assist in Massachusetts as soon as the Hurricane Warnings for the Maritime Provinces were lifted.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie for your thoughtful writing and photos of the Storm.
We have trucks here in NJ from Indiana, and Alabama......some from Ohio too.
ReplyDeleteThank you to all of them who are down here trying to restore our power!
"Funny how New York can't get organized help to parts of Staten Island and Long Island but Michigan can get ex(p)ert crews to Prospect Park."
ReplyDeletei realize you've been through a lot and are living in, or at least around, a lot of loss and unhappiness, but i think if Michigan or Louisiana was overwhelmed by a disaster, New York would be sending crews as well - with or without reciprocal agreements. i suspect your perception of New York's lack of organization has more to do with the historic size of the need than incompetence or corruption (at least at this point)...then again i'm watching the news from 3000 miles away.
my parents in their 70's are without heat, power, or phone and will be for "likely another week", 60 miles west of nyc in rural new jersey. crews are working through bigger things then their section of a sleepy hamlet of 12,000... or evidently parts of Long Island and Staten Island.
Well, all they have to tame in Michigan is a furious lake... ;-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Ontario (Canada) have sent some hydro crews down to help restore power.
ReplyDelete