It may seem a little strange to read a post about trees—a land-based organism if ever there was one—on the North River Sailing blog. But one of the best things about sailing in New York Harbor is being surrounded by an amazing city! And while we’re always thrilled to show you views of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the lower Manhattan skyline that you can only see while aboard Tantara, we started this blog so we'd have the chance to introduce you to things we love about New York that you won’t see from the boat. We're especially partial to the neighborhoods around our home at ONE°15 Brooklyn Marina.
The Cobble Hill neighborhood is only a ten minute walk from our dock. It’s known for its diverse shopping, great restaurants, beautiful brownstones, and tree-lined streets. In fact it tops the list of New York neighborhoods with the most street trees—5,783 trees per square mile, to be exact. (That statistic is a little misleading, since the area of Cobble Hill is only 0.132 square miles. We did the math, and that comes to a total of 763.356 trees—still nothing to sneeze at, unless it’s pollen season.)
As recently as the 1960s, though, Cobble Hill was nearly treeless! Its arboreal transformation is thanks, in large part, to the efforts of local resident George Polimeros. Right around the time Cobble Hill became a historic district in 1969, Mr. Polimeros began a tree-planting campaign. According to Tom Synnott, current chair of the Cobble Hill Tree Fund, George had a way of being insistent. “He arrived and informed us that we would of course be planting a tree in front of our house.” Dick Van Bolt, former treasurer, remembered him like this: “He was Mr. Tree. He never lost an opportunity to see another tree planted. If it had to do with trees and Cobble Hill, it had to do with George.”
“He planted more than 2,000 trees,” his widow, Demetra Polimeros, told a New York Times reporter in 2008. She said her husband went from house to house with his guitar, persuading residents over drinks and music to contribute money to the tree-planting effort. He mostly planted disease-resistant London planes, Mrs. Polimeros said, because, “They were hardy, and would tolerate the salt the city would throw around during a snowstorm.”
After George Polimeros' death in 1979, a group of residents in the community came together to carry on his work. Formalized in 1981 by the Cobble Hill Association in a 501C3 charitable trust, the Cobble Hill Tree Fund has overseen the planting of more than 200 trees, and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for planting and maintenance.
It’s hard not to wonder if Mr. Polimeros understood all the ways his tree-planting campaign would benefit the future residents of Cobble Hill. In addition to being beautiful to look at, urban forests (a term that encompasses everything from from individual street trees to large parks and nature preserves) can help communities during extreme heat waves. In addition to providing shade and protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays, trees actually cool the air. Their leaves release water into the atmosphere, and heat energy in the surrounding air is used to evaporate that water into a gaseous state. The process, known as evapotranspiration, leaves less heat to raise air temperatures.
Exposure to urban forests has also been shown to improve physical health. A 1984 study in Pennsylvania showed that, for patients who’d had gallbladder surgery, 23 patients assigned to rooms with windows looking out on a natural scene had shorter postoperative hospital stays, received fewer negative evaluative comments in nurses' notes, and took fewer potent analgesics than 23 matched patients in similar rooms with windows facing a brick building wall.
The results of a 2010 study suggest that people who live in areas with higher street tree density report better health perception and fewer cardio-metabolic conditions compared with their peers living in areas with lower street tree density.
Urban forests have also been shown to reduce mental stress, anxiety, and depression. A study of more than 45,000 adults age 45 and older in several cities in Australia found that people living in neighborhoods covered with 30% or more tree canopy compared to those in neighborhoods with 0% to 9% tree canopy were almost one-third less likely to experience psychological distress. The researchers accounted for age, gender, income, education level, couple status and economic status.
Urban trees also benefit wildlife as sources of shelter and food, and as migration rest stops.
So next time you book a sail with us, plan some time afterwards for a stroll beneath the leafy canopy in Cobble Hill. It’s good for you! And while not everyone has the dedication and persuasive skills to start a tree-planting campaign in their neighborhood like George Polimeros did, it only takes a few clicks and a small contribution to help the Arbor Day Foundation in its mission to nurture the essential role of urban trees in healthy, thriving neighborhoods.
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