Tree Trimming Day on Clifton Place
Clifton Place between Bedford and Nostrand was closed off yesterday to facilitate a pretty serious pruning of the many trees that line the brownstone block. We thought that this was the responsibility of the parks department but there were definitely private contractors involved. Has this been happening on other blocks recently?

Clifton Place between Bedford and Nostrand was closed off yesterday to facilitate a pretty serious pruning of the many trees that line the brownstone block. We thought that this was the responsibility of the parks department but there were definitely private contractors involved. Has this been happening on other blocks recently?
i had a tree that was infected. called the parks dept. and they send someone out the next day to inspect it and came 2 week later to cut it down.
we live on greene between bedford and nostrand-this was the scene on our block two months ago. i freaked when they started cutting the big, beautiful tree in front of our house, but it turned out well, as did the whole block. the guys cleaned up every fallen branch in the street and in our yards. i only wish that they could trim the tree in our backyard that’s dumping a foot of “snow petals” daily…but that’s another story.
I had a “dangerous condition” with a large dead limb hanging over the sidewalk in front of my house.
I called the NY Dept. of Forestry – Brooklyn Forestry and was put on some “priority list” for “immediate action.”
The result: NOTHING. Waited weeks and then had to pay a private contractor who had to apply for a permit, etc.
You can blame staffing, funding, etc. but I was very disappointed and the cost was not insignificant. And guess who would have been sued if that limb fell and hurt someone?!
The Department of Parks and Recreation does very little pruning in-house, mostly emergency conditions (e.g.: branch has broken and is hanging over a sidewalk). The rest of the pruning is done under contract with private companies. The industry standard is a ‘ten-year cycle;’ that is, every tree should be pruned once every ten years. For a while, city council funding allowed Brooklyn to be on an eight-year cycle, but I believe that has slipped some in recent years. To achieve an economy of scale, and to make the record-keeping easier, trees on groups of nearby blocks are pruned all at one time.
Ditto. NYC Parks Dept contracts with private tree companies to do the work. They did agressive tree trimming on our block last year.
The private contactors work for Parks, the city does not have enough equipment to do it all with city personnel. Community groups can also hire private pruners but before they touch a street tree, they need the OK of Parks.
This happened in Boerum Hill about 2-3 months ago. I saw both private contractors and Parks Department vehicles doing the work.
A private contractor, working for Parks, pruned the trees on my block last year.