Mulchfest Mystery: Where’d All The UWS Christmas Trees Go?
At four of five UWS and Harlem ‘Mulchfest’ locations, the number of trees collected by the Parks Department plummeted, compared to last year’s count—despite a record-setting year citywide
Harlem /
| 07 Feb 2023 | 10:58
Fewer trees got the chop this year than last year, at Parks Department Mulchfest locations on the Upper West Side. But citywide, the number set a new record. Photo via the NYC Department of Sanitation’s Twitter
Every year after Christmas, plenty of city dwellers inevitably leave their worn-out fir trees on the street, to be collected alongside piles of trash. Others participate in Mulchfest: a Parks Department event during which the remnants of Christmas are sliced and diced into wood chips—in front of New Yorkers’ eyes—to be used as a garnish atop the soil of living street trees and in the city’s green spaces.
This year, citywide, Mulchfest hit a new record: 58,309 trees were turned to chips, compared to last year’s 50,618, according to a Parks Department press officer. “The good weather on chipping weekend and widespread media coverage of the event certainly helped get New Yorkers out with their trees,” she said.
In Harlem, at West 123rd Street and Morningside Avenue, 475 more trees got the chop this year than last. But at four other Upper West Side collection sites, the count dropped dramatically.
The biggest plummet occurred at West 83rd Street and Riverside Drive, where last year’s tally of 2,835 trees mulched shrunk to only 1,383 this winter. At West 65th Street and Central Park West, the number dropped by more than 50%, from 272 trees last year to 122 this time around. And there were nearly 200 fewer trees at the intersections of West 106th Street and West 81st Street with Central Park West, combined, according to data compiled by Council Member Gale Brewer’s office.
A reason for the change has eluded Brewer, who hypothesized that more Upper West Siders could have traveled out of town for the holidays this year, thanks to eased COVID-19 restrictions, or may have been working with tighter budgets. “Trees are expensive,” she said.
Brewer saw Mulchfest volunteers on the Upper West Side “getting trees and dragging them to Riverside Park,” she said, but her outreach to the Parks Department, to get to the bottom of the decline in participation, was fruitless. In communication with The Spirit, a Parks Department press officer couldn’t indicate why numbers fluctuated in certain neighborhoods.
Perhaps Upper West Siders simply didn’t feel like making the trek, tree in tow.