About 200 trees are now gone in downtown neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, Soho, and Chinatown, according to the NY Post. Instead, "The missing limbs have left leaf-lorn neighborhoods pocked with muddy, litter-strewn craters and ugly stumps." And it seems like some of the missing trees are the victim of "delivery trucks, contractors, vandals, and people who simply ax them." more ›

As part of the Million Trees program the city is training young adults to care for its tall leafy greens. First step? Learn how to climb one. Using ropes and harnesses the twenty-somethings—many of whom have had trouble getting jobs and come from underprivileged families—do practice drills like dodging branches to ring bells hidden around the tops of trees, reports the Times. They're trained by the very best: “Spider-Man!” and “Beast!” shouted students as their instructor—tree-climbing champ Mark Chisholm— scaled an 80-foot sycamore (video here). And they get paid $11/hour for this?! The program is in its second year; previously, about half the students (this year's group is 33 people) got jobs at places like the Botanical Gardens, Wave Hill , the Prospect Park Alliance and the Central Park Conservancy. Sounds pretty nice, hopefully it won't end in a lawsuit. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg ignored a letter from an elderly woman begging him to stop the Parks Department from planting two trees in front of her Bronx home, where she's lived for 45 years. 76-year-old Irene McKenzie says leaves from the new trees will be enormous burden, and they'll also aggravate her sensitive allergies when they bloom. But tree-hugging Mayor Bloomberg did nothing to halt the inexorable advance of the trees, and a week before Thanksgiving they were planted, turning her life into a living nightmare: more ›

That tree-hugging Mayor Bloomberg and his Million Trees NYC campaign can go play in traffic as far as Dyker Heights resident (and noted gadfly) Sonny Soave is concerned. Ever since discovering telltale white markings spray painted on the sidewalk outside his house, Soave has been futilely trying to stop the city from planting a tree outside his house. He rants to the Brooklyn Paper: “How is it that I have no say about what goes in front of my house? Am I living in a communist New York where the city makes the decision for you? I know it’s the city’s sidewalk, but once it’s planted, it becomes my responsibility to clean up." And we all know how slovenly trees can be, always littering the sidewalk with their stinking leaves and fouling up the air with their oxygen. That's why Soave's making a stand: "I’ll stand right here and block them from putting that tree in if I have to." more ›