On Thursday, from 11:45 am to 2:15 pm August 7th AYLUS of Oakland Gardens held their 184th event at Fort Totten. During the event we worked with Kasha Pazdar who is the project development Coordinators of Forestry Programs to record trees for the 2025 Trees Count. Before the event our volunteers had to download the ArcGIS app for use during the event.
At the beginning of the event Pazdar handed out equipment bags containing a tape measure, a leaf guide, and other items, to everyone at the event. She explained to us that the tree census happens every ten years and they use the data to create a plan to care for the tree in future years. He told us what we were doing during the event. He told us what type of data we had to collect, for example we had to record the canopy’s condition, the trunk’s condition or how many trunks were in the tree. Then he showed us how to use ArcGIS to record the data. On the App we had to tap on each dot, representing a tree, to fill in a form about the tree’s condition. Then he showed us how to add a new tree by pressing the “+” button in the bottom right of the screen. Lastly, he also showed how to reserve a spot for each group using the same method. Using this method we reserved the parking lot and bathroom areas for our part of the census. After his instruction we were split into groups of 3-4 volunteers. Then volunteers Bella and Taiyo showed us how to identify trees and their conditions. They showed us each type of leaf category, for example the red stars next to leaves means that they are a common type of tree in New York. Then they showed us a placard of examples of damage to trees such as damaged bark, broken branches, yellowing leaves, or insect damage. Lastly they showed us a placard for grading the trees’ canopy conditions ranging from excellent (100%), good (70% – 99%), fair (50% – 69%), and poor (0% – 50%). Next our groups walked around the parking lot inspecting the trees one by one. By the end we managed to cover the majority of the parking lot and bathroom areas. After the event was over we took a group picture with Pazdar and his helpers.
We would like to thank everyone for coming to today’s event. We would like to thank Pazdar for this opportunity to help with the 2025 Trees Count. We would like to thank Pazdar again for his donation of tools to us. We would like to thank the helpers who guided us through the surveying process. Lastly we would like to thank all the volunteers who helped us during the event. We hope to work with Pazdar on more projects in the future.
Our Volunteers:
1. Sophia ShiHan You: 2.5 hours
2. Stephanie ShiRan You: 2.5 hours
3. Hong Hao Liu: 2.5 hours
4. Ioknor Lin: 2.5 hours
5. Danny Lin: 2.5 hours
6. Ryan Wu: 2.5 hours
7. Austin Li: 2.5 hours
8. Matthew Lin: 2.5 hours
9. Liam Cheung: 2.5 hours
10. Sophia Xu: 2.5 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Cui Fang Li (Fannie): 4.5 hours
Teng Fei Liu (Faye): 4.5 hours
Hsinhui Liao (Karen): 4.5 hours
Report written by: Matthew Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
