Unable to host large gatherings for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bronxites were out in full force last month, attending a nature tour of Woodlawn Cemetery, participating in a clean-up event at Bronx Community College, as well as joining other events held across the borough, all in celebration of Earth Day [April 22].

 

Attendees at Woodlawn Cemetery on Saturday, April 23, enjoyed a walking tour, the purpose of which was to identify some 400 different species of tree at the cemetery. Other participants toured the cemetery in Woodlawn’s trolley cars, and enjoyed a live musical performance, arts and crafts and storytelling for children, and a complimentary hot dog lunch.

 

 

Visitors to Woodlawn were also invited to plant flowers and trees, participate in an old-fashioned scavenger hunt, and enjoy a performance from “The Rock-A-Silly Band.”

 

During one tree tour, tour guide, Herb Landmann of the Davey Tree Company, told guests, “These trees are some of the largest species along the east coast.” Guests pointed their cell phone cameras straight up towards the sky as they captured photos of the enormous Tulip Tree, also known as Liriodendron Tulipifera.

 

Explaining the reason for the pruning as being due to recent storm damage, Landmann explained to the dozen guests on the tour that even though that particular species of tree is very large, they do have a tendency to suffer damage from wind and rain.

 

In reference to his tour, Landmann explained that it sought to spotlight five tree species: Sugar Maple, Norway Spruce, Japanese Maple, Magnolia, and Tulip trees.

 

Landmann later told Norwood News, “We just covered the general biology and the scientific names, as well as how trees make their own food and stuff like that.”

 

At one point, we encountered Woodlawn resident, David Giordano, sitting at a picnic table as his daughter, Mia, got busy making a necklace. Giordano recalled, “We were listening to a band over there, “Rock-A-Silly,” and they got the kids dancing all around and running in the grass.”

 

Giordano said his family had recently taken the Woodlawn trolly tour and he had heard about the Earth Day event at the cemetery. He added, “This cemetery is just unbelievable, how big it is, and how many mausoleums there are.”

 

Referencing the the impressive tree carvings that depicted, among others, an owl and a squirrel at Spruce Plot, along Central Avenue inside the cemetery, Giordano said they were “really amazing.”

 

As reported, New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) also hosted its largest Earth Day celebration to date, holding two separate events in The Bronx, one along Third Avenue, between East 148th Street and 149th Street, and separately, shutting down southbound Mosholu Parkway at Bainbridge Avenue for a street circus and Car Free Day, part of a kick-off event launching the department’s summer Open Streets program, which clears some of the City’s streets of most automobiles during the summer months.

 

On Sunday, April 24, more Earth Day events took place as ASEZ World Mission Society Church of God University student volunteers hosted a clean-up drive around the Bronx Community College campus, an event supported by the Office of Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, among others.

 

 

On Thursday, April 28, the day before Arbor Day, Gibson met Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in the middle of the Highbridge at West 170th Street and University Avenue, as they joined environmental groups and parks advocates and pressed on with their commitment to plant one million trees across the five boroughs over the next decade.

 

For more information on future events held at Woodlawn Cemetery, readers can visit: www.woodlawn.org. For more information on ASEZ Church of God, residents can visit: www.asez.org.