Updated: January 9, 2003

Students from New York City and its Watershed Participate in Tree Planting Exchange

On Friday, October 25th, 2002, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) joined the Council on the Environment of New York City, Friends of the High School for Environmental Studies and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to offer New York City and watershed high school students a hands-on opportunity to learn about the relationship between proper forest management and water quality.

Approximately 30 high school students from the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan and South Kortright Central School in Delaware County planted more than 375 trees and shrubs together in Inwood Hill Park, Manhattan. On a bare hillside (cleared of invasive vines and shrubs) that drains into the Harlem and Hudson Rivers, Tulip Poplar, Red Oak, Northern Hackberry, Spicebush, and White Oak will spread their tiny roots and soon establish themselves in Inwood’s mighty forest for generations to come.

On Tuesday, October 29th, these schools gathered again, but this time in the New York City watershed, to plant willow fascines (tied bundles of willow branches) along Stony Clove Creek, a tributary of the Esopus Creek that feeds the Ashokan reservoir on its way to the Hudson River. DEP’s Stream management program co-sponsored this event with the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District.

This project, an initiative of the Council on the Environment of New York City’s Training Student Organizers Program, is funded in part by the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.