With New Laws, a Focus on Nurturing the City’s Native Plants

[Staff]

With New Laws, a Focus on Nurturing the City’s Native Plants
By LUKE HAMMILL
February 25, 2013, 3:53 pm

With New Laws, a Focus on Nurturing the City's Native Plants - NYTimes.com
excerpt from above:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed into law on Monday three “green” bills, one intended to increase the city’s native biodiversity.

The biodiversity measure will actually decrease the city’s overall biodiversity in favor of nurturing native plants. It mandates that the parks department adopt a policy favoring plants native to New York over exotic plants, which can out-compete native species and drive animals dependent on them into extinction, on all city-owned property. Dozens of species of native grass, flower and tree are in decline throughout the city.

Botanical gardens and institutions that house plants for educational or scientific use will be...

[sprucetree]

I imagine they lost alot of trees with all the super storms hitting the north east.

At least when it's a city wide mandate a real impact can be seen.

Imagine seeing an order for 100 dogwoods and 100 redbud's.

Twenty years ago they were planting Russian olive and Norway maple because they could take the salt and air pollution

Now they'll plant native bottom land trees to absorb storm water along with benefits for city wildlife

[dapjwy]

[Equilibrium]

Ummm.... might be lip service. Pay close attention to the wording in that, "It mandates that the parks department adopt a policy favoring plants native to New York over exotic plants". Mandating something be adopted combined with dictating that what is adopted should "favor" native plants isn't exactly something to applaud them for just yet considering that word would be at odds with NY City being a C40 city and the plants mandated by sustainable development aren't exactly "native". Here's another article on the same thing and I'm seeing similar wording and the mention of a manual that "allegedly" hasn't been created yet, 'Bloomberg Signs Councilmember Gennaro's Green Bills Into Law', Bloomberg Signs Councilmember Gennaro's Green Bills Into Law | www.qgazette.com | Queens Gazette, "Intro 399, sponsored by Councilman Albert Vann (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant), increases native biodiversity in public landscapes by requiring the city Department of Parks and Recreation to revise its planting design manual to maximize the use of plant species that are native to New York City." That's some pretty slippery language too. Why not just mandate all future plantings be native like some smaller cities have done? He didn't do that though....probably because he couldn't. Soon as the manual is released and the policy is actually adopted.... I'm thinking we're gonna see exactly why the word "favor" was used. It's those rose colored glasses I wear. No.... just kidding. I saw what happened where I live when they used similar wording. I was like on cloud 9 until.... I saw our manual. We got duped big time.

[sprucetree]

Hopefully they'll have a sharp arborist who knows his trees and shrubs, Remember the law says it's providing for the well being of the city wildlife. So that's going to mean snags and cavities.

Maybe they could educate people why the park has dead trees and some trees that aren't eye pleasing but are squirrel magnets, It sure would make it easier on park maintenance that way

The big compromise big cities have is trying to keep the parks native and not having a rat problem.

[turttle]

Big cities will always have a rat problem, regardless of their trees. Now if they encouraged hawk and owl habitat to be provided...

Chapel Hill is doing a fairly good job on native plants for street trees. When the old ones die, they are generally replaced off a a list of approved natives.

In California, in the city where I lived, if you removed a tree with a diameter greater than 12 inches, you not only needed a permit but you had to promise to plant a native tree off of the approved list within six months of the removal. Now it wasn't clear how well enforced the ordinance was...

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

Ummm.... might be lip service. Pay close attention to the wording... I'm thinking we're gonna see exactly why the word "favor" was used...I saw what happened where I live when they used similar wording. I was like on cloud 9 until.... I saw our manual. We got duped big time.

I guess on some level I did see the wording...it struck me, but I was just so thrilled to see that native plants were being promoted and brought more into the public's awareness. I agree, it could be just lip service...but one has to ask, why they feel the need to give lip service...it seems to me the movement to plant, preserve, and promote native plants and the wildlife they support must be growing.

With all of that said, I think you are right about the wording giving them a lot of leeway and giving them an out. ~sigh~ ...but, at least there are people watching now...and more aware. I still think it is a step in the right direction.

Boy, I'm reluctant to remove my rose-colored glasses!

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by sprucetree

Remember the law says it's providing for the well being of the city wildlife. So that's going to mean snags and cavities.

...The big compromise big cities have is trying to keep the parks native and not having a rat problem.

I hope they take snags into consideration...but I'm afraid to make that leap from what I read--uh oh, I feel the rose-colored glasses slipping a little.

As for rats, I've always read that our native habitat isn't attractive to them--it is human habitation that attracts them...and the native habitat from where they originate, I'd imagine.

Originally Posted by turttle

Big cities will always have a rat problem, regardless of their trees. Now if they encouraged hawk and owl habitat to be provided...

~smile~ Good point.

Originally Posted by turttle

Chapel Hill is doing a fairly good job on native plants for street trees. When the old ones die, they are generally replaced off a a list of natives.

Good to hear.

[Equilibrium]

Dappy> “I guess on some level I did see the wording...it struck me, but I was just so thrilled to see that native plants were being promoted and brought more into the public's awareness…..With all of that said, I think you are right about the wording giving them a lot of leeway and giving them an out. ~sigh~ ...but, at least there are people watching now...and more aware.“ Who doesn’t want to believe…. me included. There’s nothing anyone watching can do though…. it’s too late…. it’s signed sealed and about to be delivered and I’m thinking their public relations “damage control” team banked on the language they’d used “thrilling” people so much…. they’d assume Bloomberg was actually promoting native plants just like they’re banking on backlash from little green environmentalists soon as their manual gets released and…. it will get released just like ours ultimately was. I’ll wager 50 to 1 odds it won’t be ecologists and biologists or restorationists who created Bloomberg’s manual…. it’s gonna be NY City’s “stakeholders” creating it…. as in HIS “sustainable” development “partners”….. that’s exactly how we got duped where I live. Our manual was allegedly in the works and had to be “withheld” until AFTER the project was approved…. sound familiar>>>>? We assumed the best science was gonna be used for our manual and what we ended up with was a major property tax increase to pay for our “share” of their latest and greatest “pet” project that spun us in a circle while providing more revenue for even more closed door deals. Instead of using our $$$ cleaning up entire swaths of land that have been inundated with noxious weeds and invasive species… they’re widening a road and adding bicycle lanes through our entire business district that will connect to the paths built in their manmade wetlands that require pump stations so they can “sustain” the wetlands species that they previously planted even though the only person who bicycled regularly through this rural suburb’s business district (1 bar, 1 feed store, a FD, a PO, 1 antique store, an unmanned historical society, 1 house selling roses in the warmer months, and 1 real estate office) died 2 yrs ago. So…. even though we actually “lost” business and traffic declined thanks to a new WalMart that was built AFTER their “studies” were concluded….our local “public servants” still “forged” ahead implementing the county’s sustainable development initiatives anyway….. where’s the logic to that…. it doesn’t exist. So far they surveyed and staked miles of the project for utilities then moved right on to removing 1 old growth oak after the next that lined the road while everyone’s jaw hit the ground. People started screaming. Now a handful of people are screaming because they just found out some hideously invasive plants have been listed as replacements based on existing sustainable sites guidelines which are supported by the American Society of Landscape Architects and local suppliers. Oh yay….. just what we needed…. landscape architects that are “partnered” with BigHort and “partnered” with BigChem choosing our plants and roadside seed mixes based on their interpretation of “sustainable”. Who woulda imagined something like this could’ve happened to a small suburban community like ours….. that’s the kind of bait and switch that only happens in big cities…. or so everyone thought. Here’s some basics on that Sustainable Sites (SITES) initiative, Sustainable Landscaping. A lot of what they’re blowing our $$$ planting is gonna have to be removed someday…. the chosen plant material WASN’T exactly based on an environmental ethic to do right by our land and they knew it which is why the manual was withheld.
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See this from the City of New York’s Parks and Recreation on Seed Collecting and Banking, catch the wording on this, “Our seed collection protocols insure the conservation and sustainability of both existing habitats and restoration sites… It is our goal to share our facility with other regional public agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs); we encourage these institutions to bank their seed collections with us in planning for their future land management needs….The GNPC welcomes area restorationists to use this seed vault for their own native seed banking.” I don’t think it was a typo when they used the word “insure” in place of “ensure”. Most everyone is assuming those seeds are being collected and banked for use in the here and now but…. they’re being collected from sites that are slated for development and banked for the “future” as in…. when their “sustainable” initiatives start failing. It's all part of the UN’s global Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, Kew Millennium Seed Bank Partnership - Saving Plants For Our Future. Another page out of the UN’s Brundtland Report er… uh…. the ‘Our Common Future’ report.
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turttle> “Big cities will always have a rat problem, regardless of their trees. Now if they encouraged hawk and owl habitat to be provided...” Our hawks and our owls aren’t a priority in the ‘Our Common Future’ programming city planners are using as a guide.

[dapjwy]

This is depressing. I think my rosé colored glasses fell off.