Timber! Hanging tree limbs concern Bay Ridge residents

Branches falling from local trees have some Bay Ridgeites yelling timber.

Bay Ridge resident John Calabrese has witnessed a number of tree branches come crashing down in the neighborhood. “It’s been going on a long time,” he said. “Every so often, a large branch will come down, usually hit a car and damage will be done in back or front of it.”

In October 2013, he experienced a close call when a branch nearly struck his own home on 78^th Street, between Colonial Road and Ridge Boulevard. No one was hurt, nor was any damage done to the home. However, there is currently another branch hanging near the house and Calabrese fears that history will repeat itself. “It’s about six feet long. Sooner or later, it will come down,” he said.

Given last October’s close call, Calabrese decided to be proactive. He logged onto the NYC Parks website to request that the city inspect the tree. Eight days later, he received an email response stating that the tree had been examined and no action was necessary.

“Parks forestry staff inspected the site on May 2, and no hanging limbs were found,” explained Parks Department spokesperson Meghan Lalor.

Neighbors of Calabrese have also been impacted. On May 17, a branch fell on top of a car parked on 87^th Street between Colonial Road and Ridge Boulevard, causing damage to the back window of the vehicle. In that case, according to Lalor, the agency “did not receive any complaints through 311 about the location.”

According to Lalor, Parks prunes a portion of the established street trees in every community board every year. When a pruning request is made, an NYC Parks forester will inspect the site and decide if the tree needs pruning right away. If the condition does not require immediate attention, they address the issue in the next pruning cycle.

That, however, is every 10 years, noted Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10, which is on record asking the city to make the pruning cycle shorter. “We continue to advocate for pruning because the length of time between prunings has grown in recent years. We have many old, large trees and pruning is very important,” she stressed.

Calabrese is concerned that if the city neglects the problem, it’ll only get worse. “There are many large dead branches in the area and the city needs to trim them from the trees because eventually they dry out and crack right off the tree. They have to do a better job with inspection,” he said.