Q&A
DEP and Parks Department coordination on water usage for new plantings during drought
1:04:09
·
81 sec
Council Member Gennaro inquires about how the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Parks Department coordinate water usage for newly planted trees and shrubs during drought conditions. The Parks Department representative explains that they were able to water new plantings normally during the recent planting season due to fortunate timing with the drought conditions.
- Newly planted trees require focused watering to ensure viability
- The recent planting season wrapped up as drought conditions emerged
- There was no impact on normal planting and watering policies
Jim Gennaro
1:04:09
Right?
1:04:10
And, and we talked earlier in in in my, opening statement about this being a, you know, particularly fragile time in, like, the life cycle of, like, a newly planted tree or shrub or whatever, and, how they're at great risk for dehydration at this point of their gestation or whatever you wanna call it.
1:04:38
And so how does DEP how does the parks department work with DEP to get dispensation on how much water they can use to support the investment of the new plantings, you know, vis a vis what the EPS would do to cut back on it.
1:04:55
So how does that colloquy work?
Matt Drury
1:04:58
Sure.
1:04:58
Great question.
1:04:58
And and you're right, that newly planted trees do require, you know, sort of targeted and and focused, watering to make to ensure their, you know, their viability moving forward.
1:05:06
And I'm pleased to confirm that in this planting season that just wrapped up, we were able to to water the trees in accordance with our normal planting policy.
1:05:14
So there was no impact.
1:05:16
And I think some of that is timing.
1:05:17
Right?
1:05:18
Like, if the planting season had essentially been kind of starting to kind of dial down as the drought conditions had kind of emerged.
1:05:23
So not that there's ever a good time for a drought, but, you know, the timing in that regard was was fairly fortuitous.
Jim Gennaro
1:05:29
Good.
1:05:30
Yeah.
1:05:30
Because I'm I I I always fund a lot of plantings, and, I'm gonna give myself a little latitude and go, like, a little off topic.
