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It's a walk-up, but the price is right. City squirrels are enjoying the goodwill of concerned citizens and the Parks Dept., who cooperated to install squirrel houses in City Hall Park. Mark Garvin had five of the boxes, which measure about a foot around, built with soft pine for several hundred dollars a piece--city real estate insanity extends to the trees!
Garvin initially became concerned about the plight of the squirrels after the September 11 attacks, when downtown was blanketed with possible toxic dust. The biologist by day (and squirrel houser in his free time) said he saw squirrels dying in the days following the attacks for lack of shelter.
The Parks Department is not unfamiliar with building squirrel houses. The above pictures are of a home installed in Forest Hills, Queens; eventually, a flying squirrel took it over. (We didn't even know that NYC had flying squirrels!) The Parks Dept. considers this a continuation of a program to house naturally beneficial animals, like owls, bats, wood ducks, tree swallows, and purple martins.
City Parks Ranger Capt. Richard Simon told Newsday squirrels are an integral part of the City's parks, "Old people like to feed them and the tourists like to see them. They're just very friendly, and they're cute." It's hard not to agree.
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several hundred dollars a piece? please tell me that's a misprint.
Seriously, where can I get in on a city contract?
I wonder if the Parks Dept. can ask students in woodshop class to make these houses as part of their projects. Or maybe the Parks Dept. should sell kits to make them- I'd love to create one!
That's a really crazy looking squirrel. I guess flying squirrels have a more psychotic look than your regular run-of-the-mill squirrels. It's still pretty cute.
They're freaking rats with bushy tails. Houses for tree rats, folks...
The squirrel is just one of those animals the environmentalists won't talk about because they are dependent on 'bad' human activity, like cities, landscaping etc.
He looks snuggly.
Bat houses are the best because bats eat mosquitos. More bat houses, please!
I smell a Gothamist brand opportunity. Wood shop to build them. Metal shop to emblazon the logo of the site. Nature class to affix them to park trees!