Trees in parks, gardens hard-hit by storms

Spring won't be quite so springlike next year in some of the metropolitan area's best-known woodland settings. Tropical Storm Irene in August and the freak snowstorm in October combined to destroy or damage tens of thousands of trees, many of them popular favorites, in the region's parks and public gardens.

Uprooted trees and snapped-off boughs were evident after each storm, but not until this month, when surviving trees finally lost their leaves and arborists found hidden cracks and other damage, was the full scope of the devastation appreciated, managers said.

Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, said the damage from the snowstorm "was as extensive as any storm has caused in my 13 years at the garden."

Experts said the cleanup would take several more months, which means paying overtime to staffers, hiring outside help, and deciding what new trees to purchase, all on budgets that were already strapped as financial support from governments eroded.

Fundraising campaigns have begun, asking members and longtime supporters to help restore their parks and gardens. But officials aren't pretending that the damage can be hidden.

Forrest estimated that 3,000 trees were lost or damaged at the garden. In Central Park, more than 1,000 of the 23,000 trees have been removed or are likely to go, said Neil Calvanese, vice president for operations at the Central Park Conservancy, which cares for the park under contract with the city.

Other well-known trees or tree stands that suffered in the storms include:

The Ramble in Central Park, where, Calvanese said, "the heavy damage to the tree canopy means people will see a lot more of the sky."

One side of the drive leading to the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, N.J. "It was this great arching canopy, and just the one side was pretty hard-hit," executive director Gayle Petty-Johnson said. Century-old chestnut trees, at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford, Conn. Irene destroyed a tree that was grown from seed in 1913 and was the original from which clones have since been derived.

The Central Park Conservancy's budget is about $40 million, 85 percent of which is privately raised, Calvanese said, and he doesn't expect city funds to help cover the storm losses. "I'm pretty sure we're going to go over $1 million on this storm damage, and we know that's going to be private dollars."

The Botanical Garden is assuming snowstorm cleanup and replacement will costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, on top of the $150,000 in damage caused by Irene, Forrest said. One-fifth of the garden's $60 million budget comes from government sources. City support has been cut 20 percent since 2008, said spokeswoman Melinda Manning.

Forrest said he's sure parks and gardens will manage to do whatever it takes to keep the public happy. "When people come to the garden, they need it to be beautiful," he said. " . . . And broken trees everywhere just is not beautiful."