Ground Zero oaks being set in LI soil mix

It will take a specialized, engineered organic soil to grow 400 swamp white oak trees at Ground Zero. And when the 9/11 Memorial project needed the mix it called Long Island Compost, the Island's largest organic dirt producer .

"This is a careful recipe of soil that will give the tree what it needs to thrive,'' said Matthew Donham, landscape architect and partner at California-based PWP Landscape Architecture, which designed the 9/11 Memorial Plaza.

"We spent many hours developing the soil's specifications to bring the maximum nutrient value needed for the trees to flourish,'' said Donham, whose soil formula was mixed by Long Island Compost of Yaphank.

The 7 acres where the 400 trees will ultimately live is a mega-urban rooftop garden whose soil is made up of lightweight rocks, sand and worm waste as well as Long Islanders' grass clippings and leaves, duck manure and supermarket vegetable and fruit waste.

Fifty trees have been planted so far, with 200 more to be planted by next summer, in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The trees will surround the plaza's north and south reflecting pools, whose four sides will be rimmed in bronze etched with the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993. The reflecting pools sit at the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers.

Charles Vigliotti, who founded Long Island Compost with his two brothers, Arnold and Dominic, 34 years ago, said the soil specification for the 9/11 Memorial Plaza project "was a specific formula for us to hit. And our job was to make sure the soil met those requirements.''

The private company, which has a 62-acre site in Yaphank, is one of the Northeast's largest sellers of engineered design dirt. It produces about 200,000 tons of compost annually and employs 170 workers. It also supplies the compost needs for the Central Park Conservancy, Citi Field, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Botanical Garden, to name a few.

Long Island Compost's biggest project yet is the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, for which the company supplied 70,000 cubic yards of soil, which is about 2.8 million, 40-pound bags.

"We have done terrific projects, but this one is different,'' Vigliotti said of the Memorial Plaza. "There is a tremendous amount of national pride. This is important to us."

Long Island Compost will supply 25,000 cubic yards of soil for the 400 trees.

The company expects to expand its soil retail business from 4 million 40-pound bags of soil to 6 million bags next year, said Vigliotti, president and chief executive.

But growth has it drawbacks. Neighbors of Long Island Compost have complained about odors and dust.

"It's a constant balancing act to mitigate any impact,'' said Vigliotti. The company has installed a water misting system to keep the dust down, and it also uses a "neutralizing'' spray that gets rid of the smell, he said.