Watch It Bud . . How “Bloomie” Are Things After Bloomie’s Falls?

Last fall we wrote about Mayor Bloomberg’s self-congratulatory masterminding of the New York City Waterfalls whose spewing salt poisoned the soil and removed the leaves from trees and vegetation in the vicinity. See: Self-Congratulation “Befalls” a Man Who Would Know No Limits (Wednesday, October 15, 2008). More recently we wrote on reports that vegetation is reportedly not coming back the way it should. See the end of our Bloomberg Update: Fire and Ice (Part II) (Sunday, April 12, 2009).

It’s April 27th and we have been watching the Honey Locust trees on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to see how well they might recover with the arrival of spring. Today we think we have a partial answer. And we have pictures that show the situation.

Last Summer

First, below is a picture (click to enlarge) of the barren tress taken last summer. It appeared in our first piece on the subject: Wednesday, September 3, 2008
“Yeah, sure. Bad for the glass.” (Inartful Clues to New York City Government?).

A Control Group: Healthy Honey Locust Trees That Were Far from the Waterfalls

Here are two photos (click to enlarge) of healthy Honey Locust trees budding. You have to walk far to get a good control group because the salt spay from the falls affected trees on the Promenade to some extent as far away as Clark Street. On the healthy trees the buds are opening robustly all along the branches right out to the tips.

Most Damaged Honey Locust Trees

Here are two photos (click to enlarge) of Honey Locust tree buds on a tree that was near the Waterfalls and is struggling to come back. The budding is not as robust and there is no budding at the branch tips indicating that there may be a fair amount of dieback from which the tree will need to recover. If anything this tree ought to be further along at this point since it is in a spot where it gets more sun.