After a long winter, the daffodils and tulips that have popped up around our neighborhood – many of which were planted by Prospect Heights Street Tree Task Force (PHSTTF) volunteers – are welcome sights indeed. We hope they inspire you to take a few moments to consider how you can help make our neighborhood greener and even more beautiful in the coming weeks. We’d like to offer a few suggestions:

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is undertaking a number of projects aimed at improving water quality in the Gowanus Canal. Several of these projects are intended to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into the canal. CSOs are prone to occur during heavy rains when stormwater overwhelms the capacity of the local sewer system.

Because Prospect Heights is part of the watershed for the Gowanus Canal, DEP plans to install a network of bioswales to absorb stormwater. Bioswales are tree pits with a curb cut to absorb runoff.