wells: street trees IN NEW YORK city 
83 
During the years between 1935 and 1938 when I was Chief Planting 
Designer for the New York Park Department, I had an opportunity to 
delve into this subject and in the few minutes assigned to me I shall tell 
you of the New York City street tree problems I encountered in studying 
a master street tree plan. These studies were made with reference to 
soil maps, air pollution maps, real property inventories, property zoning 
maps, maps of existing trees, and maps showing existing and proposed 
arterial thoroughfares and parks. 
The legal aspects have been particularly confusing. Between 1868 
and 1934 there were nine chapters of law with revisions which required 
eighteen interpretative opinions by the Law Department of the Cor- 
portion Council’s Office between 1914 and 1934. Then there is the 
Code of Ordinances for the City of New York and the Greater New York 
Charter and its amendment of 1934. Lastly there is the new city 
charter which went into effect the first of this year. To all intents and 
purposes the entire responsibility of street trees lies with the Commis¬ 
sioner of Parks. I fear that the last Charter, as well as all other ordi¬ 
nances, is frought with so many “except” clauses that the authority is 
pretty hard to define or enforce. 
A physical survey of existing street trees is a large undertaking in it¬ 
self. There are probably between one and two million trees on the 
streets of this city. The closest estimate of all trees in the parks and on 
the streets is based on an actual count of all trees in Manhattan and 
Brooklyn and totalled two million, two hundred thousand trees. Com¬ 
pare this figure of over 1,000,000 street trees with other cities. Three 
or four years ago Minneapolis reported about 300,000, Philadelphia 
about 150,000, Baltimore about 140,000, Washington, D. C. about 
120,000 and Newark, N. J. about 75,000. 
During the three years I was in the Department we planted between 
fourteen and fifteen thousand trees on streets bordering parks and play¬ 
grounds and on a few major thoroughfares. The natural losses are 
heavy. Two hundred or 300 trees are lost each year due to vandalism, 
gas poisoning, and auto accidents. In a single year there are sometimes 
as many as 2000 trees lost or removed in the line of street widening and 
subsurface constructions. 
The trees which exist on our streets today have been planted over a 
period of many years by individual property owners, by the Department 
of Parks, and by the Borough Presidents. In a large measure these 
plantings, particularly that large volume planted by individuals, have 
