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Students observe a tree planting at Willow Park in Yorktown on April 23, 2026. Photo courtesy of the Town of Yorktown.<\/p>\n\t\tStudents observe a tree planting at Willow Park in Yorktown on April 23, 2026. Photo courtesy of the Town of Yorktown.<\/p>\n
Thirty middle school students from Brooklyn traded city pavement for park greenery on Thursday, traveling to Willow Park to participate in a Trees for Tributaries planting event.<\/p>\n
The initiative, hosted by the Yorktown Parks and Recreation Department in coordination with the Tree Conservation Advisory Commission and the Watershed Agricultural Council, saw students planting 10 native trees\u2014including black cherry, silver maple, burr oak, and swamp oak\u2014along the pond\u2019s edge. The project served a dual purpose: preventing soil erosion at Willow Park and protecting the water quality of the Amawalk Reservoir, which provides drinking water to New York City.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a privilege to welcome these young stewards and share the natural splendor that defines our community,\u201d said Yorktown Supervisor Ed Lachterman. \u201cFor many of these children, seeing the origin of their drinking water is a transformative experience. By opening our parks to students who may not live in such a lush environment, we are fostering a lifelong respect for nature and demonstrating how we are all interconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event functioned as a \u201cnature\u2019s classroom,\u201d allowing students to apply Earth Day lessons to real-world conservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great when you can get out of the classroom and learn through action,\u201d said Parks Superintendent James Martorano. \u201cKids are learning from Brooklyn all the way up to Yorktown about nature and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project was made possible through a Trees for Tributaries grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need trees to keep the water quality drinking,\u201d said Keith\u00a0Schepart of the Tree Conservation Advisory Commission. \u201cThis tributary just looks like a really innocent stream that goes into a pond, but it actually goes into another stream, and it continues on its way to Amawalk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collaboration highlights the vital link between upstate land preservation and downstate resource management.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work in New York City\u2019s drinking water watershed\u2014all of the lands that flow into New York City\u2019s drinking water reservoirs,\u201d said Jessica Alba, Watershed Forest Stewardship Educator at the Watershed Agricultural Council. \u201cWe want to teach students where their drinking water comes from and teach them about the forests that protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The town tree bank, also located at Willow Park, grew the saplings used to shore up the pond\u2019s perimeter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students observe a tree planting at Willow Park in Yorktown on April 23, 2026. Photo courtesy of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-216181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}