East New York neighbors concerned after NYCHA worker killed by fallen tree
NYC Council member Chris Banks (D) patrolled the East New York neighborhood on Monday, looking for other problem trees, and visiting the spot where Leighton Brown lost his life.
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City leaders and residents are questioning what is being done to prevent trees from falling following the death of Leighton Brown, a NYCHA worker who was killed by a falling tree while on the job this weekend.
"These trees, they constantly fall," shared Cypress Hill Houses resident Gaspar Perez.
Perez says throughout his three decades of living there, he and others have grown to love Brown.
"Everybody knew the guy, and he was a good worker. And it's sad that, you know, he had to be doing a double shift…and you get killed by a natural disaster," Perez continued.
NYC Council member Chris Banks (D) patrolled the East New York neighborhood on Monday, looking for other problem trees, and visiting the spot where Brown lost his life.
"We heard during budget hearings that there was a 7-year backlog that exists with maintaining and pruning trees throughout the entire city. So I think, again, this goes to the broader issue," said Banks.
News 12 called and emailed NYC Parks to confirm if there was indeed a backlog and to ask if that tree that killed Brown was marked to be cut down before it fell. News 12 also asked how many trees are currently marked in Brooklyn, and if there is any plan to take care of those before the next big storm.
NYC Parks released a statement to News 12 after our deadline stating:
"Parks inspected this tree earlier this year and created a work order for future pruning. Based on our inspection, the work was categorized as Category C: Moderate risk. For more information on our Tree Risk Management protocol and categorizations, please see our webpage.
Our trained expert foresters work diligently year-round to care for trees in our parks and along the city's streets. We utilize state-of-the-art methodology, informed by the International Society of Arboriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, and a robust risk inspection protocol to prioritize tree work. Inspections are completed by NYC Parks expert arborists and by consultant arborists.
For street trees, Parks also performs proactive routine pruning through our block pruning program. Under this program, our contractors prune a portion of the street trees in each community district every year, promoting public safety and tree health by:
Reducing damage caused during storms
Addressing blocked traffic signs and signals
Removing broken and dead branches
Improving tree structure
Reducing conflicts with building structures, lights, and vehicle and pedestrian traffic
Regarding CM Banks, I believe this is a misunderstanding of the 7-year cycle that our routine proactive block pruning is on — even more info on that below:
Parks' block pruning program takes a neighborhood-based approach to routine, proactive tree maintenance by addressing a portion of the street trees in each community board every year. NYC Parks inspects, then prunes established street trees growing in the public right-of-way on a routine 7-year cycle (as funding allows), an industry standard for maintaining an urban tree population the size of New York City's."
NYC Parks shared that as of Monday morning, they received over 2,100 service requests for damaged or fallen trees.
