About the trees at the New York City Marble Cemetery

On the topic of the New York City Marble Cemetery... as we noted Tuesday, workers removed three diseased trees from the historic cemetery on East Second Street...

The Cemetery's Facebook page (funny that doesn't seem so weird) has an explanation about the tree removal:

All three trees were damaged during Super Storm Sandy last October, especially the one leaning over the sidewalk which lost most of its crown. At the time we got specialists in to save the tree and were warned that it might have trouble thriving or even surviving as it would be difficult for it to get enough nourishment from its remaining leaves. We decided it needed to be given a chance. but basically with its immune system so compromised it soon began to show signs of illness losing bark and developing large bare patches on its trunk. Neighbors contacted us to let us know it was in trouble. The other two trees had been showing signs of disease even before the hurricane. the smaller one nearest the gate was hollowed out by disease and the third, the larger one leaning towards the houses, had a problem at its base.

We really hoped that the problem would be small and slow-growing but, when we ordered special tests to check, the results that came back from the lab were that it had a fast growing pathogen attacking it and was, because of the position of the disease, likely to fail. So, very sadly, after spending thousands of dollars in an attempt to save these trees, we ended up having to spend thousands more dollars having to take them down — for safety reasons. Because of the increased danger of them coming down during a storm and their position next to the street we had no choice but to be cautious. We have plans, funds permitting, to plant some new trees in the fall.

We are gladly accepting donations towards the purchasing and planting of new trees — you may visit our website for details of how to donate via Paypal or cheque.

Thank you for understanding, and please know we did everything we could to save those trees. We loved them too!