PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Marshall Lee Weimer, City Forester from Manhattan Borough Forestry and NYC Parks
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Marshall Lee Weimer, a city forester with Manhattan Borough Forestry and NYC Parks, testified about the need for more funding and staff to mitigate wildfire concerns in NYC parks. He shared his experience responding to the Inwood Hills fire and emphasized the importance of addressing tree hazards and improving risk assessment practices.
- Weimer stressed the need for higher pay and incentives to attract and retain skilled tree care professionals.
- He supported the in-house training program for firefighters but noted that higher pay is necessary to encourage parks workers to join.
- Weimer emphasized that without adequate staffing, even with proper risk assessment criteria, extreme risks cannot be effectively addressed.
Marshall Lee Weimer
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Alright.
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Awesome.
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Well, thank you.
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Thank you council members.
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I appreciate having this opportunity to speak.
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My name is Marshall Lee Weimer.
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I'm a city forester with Mahanborough Forestry and NYC Parks.
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I listened to the testimony all today, excuse me while I'm getting on the bus right now.
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But, the issue, I was actually at the Inwood Hills fire on November 15th.
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I responded to it to look at the, trees that were hazardous to the, park's users there.
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And, I agree with every all that has been said today that there needs to be more funding and, baselines of staff to mitigate these, wildfire concerns.
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These are gonna be issues that we're gonna face for the foreseeable future within our natural areas.
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And as of now, we do not have a preparation ready for that.
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And so I Stop.
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Look forward to seeing the forest department and the FDNY in the support that they need from the state council in order to address these concerns.
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In regard to introduction 800,
Vickie Paladino
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I do risk assessments every day for trees throughout the state,
Marshall Lee Weimer
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to assessments every day for trees throughout the state, specifically in the borough of Manhattan.
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And while I, you know, sympathize with the concerns of all the constituents and also the council members about, tree hazards not being addressed.
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The issue is not whether or not the criteria is available to folks.
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It is the, lack of staffing in order to address these concerns.
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So if there are not prime repairs on staff to mitigate these concerns, we have as much education about how we do risk assessments available, but those, extreme risks will not be addressed.
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So, what needs to happen is I'll need to have more incentives and more pay for the finer printers.
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The, in house training program that Ben Osberg, brought up earlier was one of those great solutions to that, but there needs to be a higher pay for the state parks workers to join that program, in order to become firefighters.
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Expired.
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And okay.
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Well, thank you, and I hope you take my questions.
Vickie Paladino
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So you
Shekar Krishnan
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can finish up and wrap up if you have anything anything more you wanted to add.
Marshall Lee Weimer
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Thanks.
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Oh, well, yeah.
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Again, it's sapping.
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If you if you wanna have your tree, if you wanna have your tree risks addressed, you need to have the staff to do so.
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And to have the staff to do so, you need to have more pain assessment for the fine recruiters.
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Thank you.
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Have a nice day.