Beautify Lower Madison Avenue Neighborhood

1. In March, team leader Victoria Watkins and tree care team members will alert local residents and business people to this fundraising opportunity to sustain our urban forest.

2. Team members will schedule weekend dates in late March or early April to work on 17 tree pit beds in our neighborhood.

3. An order for soil-compost bags will be placed with the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

4. Our team will remove litter, dog waste and weeds from tree pit beds. Next, we will gently loosen soil with hand cultivators to avoid damaging roots. Soil-compost mixture will be added to tree pit beds and cultivated with existing soil.

5.  April through October, we will continue to work with building superintendents to fill Treegator watering bags on our street trees each week, clean tree pits and cultivate soil. Citizen pruners on our team will prune trees when necessary.

After we removed graffiti eyesores and persuaded the Department of Sanitation to add more litter baskets on busy street corners, we asked Million Trees NYC to plant street trees.  After 14 trees went in, several people made the same spontaneous comment to our team: “It’s beginning to look like a neighborhood!”  Since November 2009, team members have been adopting and caring for new trees, as well as older, neglected trees. We have been scrapping together funds for soil management and Treegators watering bags from our personal funds.  Preserving and protecting our street trees is a civic activity that brings residents and business people in the community together.