Blow downs in Prospect

More than 50 trees were brought down in Prospect Park during this weekend’s terrible storm. Several were venerable. I haven’t made it to the park yet, but I fear I will be missing some old friends. I still mourn a fine old white oak, which might have dated back to near the birth of the park, that went down in a storm the late 1990s.

Many people are often surprised at how shallow most tree roots are. Most root action is within a foot or two of the surface. The deep taproot, mirroring above-the-ground height in reverse, is actually pretty atypical. So strong winds can wreck havoc. In a natural forest, blow-downs are part of the process: they make space for saplings, and free other species that may have been held in check by shade; they provide food for beetles, ants, and fungi, and the things that eat those things; and so on. But of course Prospect Park isn’t quite a natural forest, it’s a managed one, a hybrid (watch out for that hydrant in the Midwood!) that takes a lot of work to maintain. You can help here.