Oops there goes another rubber tree plant!
The Parks Department had to rescue a bunch of city trees on a Windsor Terrace street from meeting a cement-shoe death after the owner of a neighboring apartment building filled the tree beds with a rubbery paving product, according to an agency spokeswoman.
“Please don’t harm our trees!” said agency spokeswoman Maeri Ferguson. “Trees are living organisms that are at risk of injury and destruction in the urban environment, and entirely sealing a tree pit this way adds to the challenges already faced by urban trees.”
A spokesman for property owner Newcastle Realty Services claimed the company was only trying protect the street’s botanical beauties outside its building on 31 Ocean Pkwy. from litter and dog urine by filling their planters in with a product called Flexi-Pave earlier this week.
Flexi-Pave is porous, so water can seep through to the trees’ roots and it doesn’t harm the plants, he insisted.
But the Parks Department begs to differ, and tore up the illicit paving on the stretch near E. Eighth Street on Thursday before launching an investigation into what it considers “vandalism,” Furgeson said.
“Water uptake is vital to sustaining a tree, which makes this type of vandalism particularly harmful,” she said. “Damaging trees is against our rules.”
And in one local pol’s admittedly non-professional opinion, the Parks Department’s diagnosis is correct.
“Yikes! I’m no botanist, but somehow that does not seem good for the tree,” Councilman Brad Lander (D–Windsor Terrace) tweeted after local science teacher Steve Sandman posted about the apparent problem on the social media service.
One passerby was also pretty sure the supple sealant was suffocating the timber.
“It looks like it’s choking the trees,” said Cathy Eng who was in the area to visit her daughter before the city rescued the trapped trunks. “I hope it doesn’t kill them.”
But another onlooker thought the management company’s addition was a great decorating choice.
“It looks so much better than it did before,” said Leo Tomilchik.
— with Sarah Dougan
