Dozens Of Trees Felled In Riverside Park

A playground in Riverside Park after Hurricane Sandy. (Photos: John Herrold/Riverside Park Conservancy) 

Manhattan

Riverside Park and the adjoining Sakura Park lost at least 36 trees to Hurricane Sandy. Many more were damaged, according to the New York Times.

The losses included an enormous oak in the Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary, at 116th Street, that was estimated to have been at least 80 years old; another great oak and several locusts around Mount Tom, at 83rd Street, where Edgar Allan Poe is believed to have spent time contemplating the Hudson River (he lived nearby for a while); eight lindens and elms in Sakura Park at 122nd Street; and a large elm at 146th Street that may have been 75 years old.

Riverside Park in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. 

The damage assessment was released Friday by the Riverside Park Fund, which announced at the same time that it was renaming itself the Riverside Park Conservancy, both because the new name better expresses its function and because the old name sounded like a hedge fund.

“Riverside has lost probably 600 trees to violent storms during 2008, 2009 and 2011,” said Molly MacDermot, a spokeswoman for the fund and conservancy. “This culling probably contributed to the relatively low number lost this time. Also contributing is the extensive pruning Riverside Park Fund has done in recent years. This controlled removal of weak limbs leaves trees more resistant to high winds.”

The Central Park Conservancy said on Wednesday that more than 650 trees there were destroyed or damaged by the hurricane. The losses included a pin oak in the North Woods that may have been among the earliest trees planted in Central Park.

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Three Dozen Trees Felled in Riverside Park
New York Times - November 9, 2012 - By David W. Dunlap