Early preview where we might be mapping in Western Queens this summer!

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This Saturday, join us for a general TreeKIT workshop as part of the Conflux festival! This is a great time for interested individuals to get a quick orientation and go out and map a couple blocks using our simple hand tools and online map-form. We especially designed this workshop for people who would like to bring TreeKIT back to their own areas of interest. Meet us at 9am this Saturday at St. Marks Church benches – East 10th at 2nd avenue. We’ll be going until noon.

http://www.confluxfestival.org/projects/conflux-festival-2010/treekit/
http://www.confluxfestival.org/

Graduate architecture students at Pratt Institute spent classtime on Wednesday gaining basic tree identification skills and learning both the TreeKIT and Parks protocols. But yesterday, due to the havoc wreaked by the tornado, there was a bit of a scramble as we realized that it was going to be unsafe to walk through Prospect Heights due to all the debris, and we decided to focus on Fort Greene instead. So last night, we set a new mapping area, made six block maps with address labels, and adjusted the spreadsheet to include a field for “damage”. This morning, 12 students as well as professor Alex Barker met up, organized into 3 teams and set out to map the six blocks adjacent to campus.

The weather was great and we had a very successful day, helped along by a lively block party with childrens’ sing-a-longs. We saw only two street trees down in the two by three block swath south of the main campus.

We are shocked and in the middle of re-evaluating our study area for matching trees with the existing city database because so many trees came crashing down during the freak weather today.

Because of “all hands on deck” to clean up the debris, this weekend’s mapping party will be moved to another location or cancelled entirely.

This Saturday, TreeNYC was joined by an amazing crew: the East Harlem First Robotics team led by G. Garcias. These young people tackled tough-to-map areas at the north edge of the neighborhood that are experiencing heavy construction impacts from Atlantic Yards. Tree ID was taught by guest landscape architects Michael Cluer and Patrick Doran.

This Saturday’s mapping party in Prospect Heights was a great start to the season! Prospect Heights Community Farm graciously hosted our orientation session, which turned into a jubilant meet-&-greet where some of our staunchest supporters finally met face to face. Five teams of mappers set out and in just a few hours completed 25% of the total block segments. We wrapped up the day with a report back and got some great advice on what could be improved about the user experience. Unofficially, we can say that the greatest factor affecting efficiency is talking to strangers — we are amazed by the sheer number of passers-by who walk up and want to know what we are doing and why!

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it happen in the hot, hot heat.