City Department of Parks (DOP) officials are bringing their Greening Western Queens program to a neighborhood near you.
Officials recently launched the project, which will plant more than 850 trees in neighborhoods from Long Island City to Woodside, where massive oak trees once lined sidewalks, improving air quality and offering comfort to residents.
The trees silently disappeared over the years, victims of old age, disease and weather conditions that caused them to wilt and die, Department of Parks officials said.
The project is rooted in a settlement between Con Edison and the Western Queens Power for the People Campaign, a nonprofit group that pressed the utility giant for funding.
As a result, Greening Western Queens will receive $3.39 million from a New York-based charitable organization chosen to manage the funds received in the settlement.
“The very important thing that the trees will bring is to make the temperature in general lower than in places without trees,” a project spokesperson said.
Lower temperatures result in less energy being used to power fans and air conditioners, the spokesperson said. Another advantage is reduced rainwater runoff, decreasing flooding that causes a strain in the city sewer system.
The greening is scheduled to begin in the fall, when lower temperatures offer more successful plantings.
On a related note, city officials said tree plantings under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s
“Million Tree” program are slated to take place this fall in neighborhoods in Long Island City, Dutch Kills, Sunnyside and Woodside.
Plantings took place in neighborhoods in Astoria in late 2010 and in the spring of 2011, officials said.
–Liz Goff