Mulchfest had its strongest year yet thanks to the heavy stream of volunteers wrangling up trees!!! Mix that with a steady stream of community participation and it rounds out to a PHCFarm all time record somewhere in the area of around 700 trees collected and turned into mulch!!!
Thanks to everyone that helped!
Leaves collected curbside are treated as regular household trash. Don’t waste this precious resource! Keep leaves out of our landfills and help create beautiful compost!
The garden will be accepting bagged, residential leaves* for composting on the following dates:
November 12th
November 20th
December 4th
Find out about other locations that are collecting leaves at nycleaves.org.
* Please no twigs, branches, or trash! Please use clear plastic or brown paper bags.
Dear Friends,
As many of you are aware, there has been a rash of street tree vandalism in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights recently. For those of you who are hearing about this for the first time, please click HERE, HERE, and HERE to learn more on local blogs. The damage is extensive, and there are some young trees that may never heal.
Apparently all of the vandalism is being done by a mentally/emotionally disturbed resident of the area. Street tree stewards are mobilizing to push for an improvement in social services to help this guy out and prevent further damage to the local urban forest. In the short term, the Deputy Director of Brooklyn Forestry and the Department of Parks has asked that anyone witnessing an act of vandalism do the following:
1. Immediately call 9-1-1, file a report, and keep a record of the case number
2. Document the incident without jeopardizing your safety (photos, etc.)
3. Send all case numbers, witness dates, and photos to this email. I’ll serve as the point person to funnel the data to Parks and their Enforcement Police.
If anyone can claim to have witnessed the vandalism taking place and has information on the name and residence of the perpetrator, Parks is asking that you step forward and provide a witness statement. Please contact me if you’ve seen the damage in action and you’re willing to formally file a statement.
I’d also ask everyone to contact local elected officials (Tish James, for example) to notify them of the problem and urge them to identify better social services / support for our neighbor. This is a particular challenge that may be beyond our collective ability to help solve, but we can be good neighbors and push for a sustainable solution that includes better care (in whatever form appropriate) for the guy doing the damage.
Sincerely,
Phil Silva
Prospect Heights Community Farm
Prospect Heights Urban Forestry Initiative
Photo sources: Brooklyn Born, About Time.
Here are a couple of pictures from this weekends mulch frenzy. A good time had by all, Including the man with the shovel
The following are some more long-awaited pictures of the PHCF Compost Sifter in action. Someday we’ll figure out how to create a very dynamic and Flash-y way of displaying these sorts of things on the website. ‘Till then, you’ll have to pardon the somewhat awkward layout in which I’ve presented them here.
The sifter’s construction is fairly simple. Bicycle wheels, stripped of tires, spokes, and gears, make up the the two hoops on each end. Wire mesh – chicken wire will do the trick, in a pinch – makes up the body. The whole thing rolls on a wood frame with four small castors screwed into the sides. The grooves of the wheels fit perfectly along the castors, and they spin the sifter with the least effort. Jon and James can say more about the details of the sifter’s construction. More to come soon…
