By Gus Saltonstall
A large tree crashed to the earth on the Upper West Side sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The tree fell backward on Central Park West, between West 94th and 95th streets, over the barrier to the park. Prior to its fall, the tree had been stationed on the sidewalk of Central Park West.
The force of the tree ripping out of its roots damaged the surrounding cobblestones and pavement.
Multiple people stopped to gawk and photograph the fallen tree on Wednesday morning. One teenager ducked the yellow tape and attempted to jump and touch the top of the stump after a debate over whether it was taller than a basketball hoop.
He didn’t reach it.
Google Maps imagery from August 2026 shows the tree had clearly been leaning backward.
Multiple “tree care” trucks cleaned up the scene Wednesday morning. The teams were cutting up the tree from its top side and loading the wooden carcass into vehicles.
Thanks to Mark Maas for tipping us off about the downed tree.
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forget the tree, what up with that lamppost? 😬
a tree fell knocking down a lamppost in riverside park just about 3 minutes after i and 2 others walked by. whew!
I think it might be a distortion in the photo? At least I hope so!!!
Solidarity
I get nervous walking under the heavy, sagging tree limbs.
Especially when all the parks department staff is capable of doing is putting up some caution tape after the fact.
they outsource tree inspection to private companies who i am sure do not want any liability for injuries or nefligance.
Parks does not do tree “inspection.” They do after the tree has gone down removal and replacement only. They VERY RARELY perform any maintenance pruning, either.
The Central Parks Conservancy does routine tree inspections and maintenance. I’ve talked to their maintenance crews about it. I assume the Riverside Parks Conservancy does the same, and Morningside Parks. I can’t speak to what the Parks Department does elsewhere – but this tree also was not in Central Park, it was a street tree.
There is no routine (or otherwise) tree inspection or maintenance in Riverside Park. I know this because I have been working as a volunteer in Riverside Park for 23 years, in a heavily used area with a lot of large, old trees, and these have NEVER been checked, even when I have asked that they be. We recently lost a large, old tree (about the size of the Central Park one in the photo), which stood over 2 benches. If the tree had fallen in the direction of the benches, and folks had been sitting there, there might have been serious injuries. However, it fell in the opposite direction, toward the drive, and no one was there at the time. I had asked that the tree be checked for many years; my requests were ignored by the Conservancy and the Parks Dept. It turned out it was decaying in the center, and eventually split. If the tree had been checked, it might have been treated and saved for another several years. Maybe Central Park cares for their trees, but Riverside Park does not.
a worker in riverside park said there is only 1 arborist!
This is a decade+ old problem, RSD had 2 arborists last during the *Bloomberg* years. The Conservancy is no substitute for the Parks Department
Yes, and they are only there to schedule tree removal after a tree has lost a large section or gone down completely.
this is demonstrably false.
Show me.
They are also capable of getting it cleaned up very quickly and of maintaining one of (if not the) most beautiful urban park in the world.
Did anyone hear it fall ?
Asking for a friend.
May the tree that unconditionally served us (shelter, shade, oxygen) for so many years now rest in peace. I mourn the loss of each and every tree that we lose.
No. That’s why nobody seems to know whether it fell “late Tuesday or early Wednesday..”
What we do know is that it was “stationed on the sidewalk of Central Park West.” problably on watch for something.
Looks like it fell (asleep) on the job.
Ha!
well it’s not in the forest.
But it is in the urban jungle.
I saw Gus out there this morning working on this story and trying to interview people as I was heading downtown. It was great to see him “in action”.
How many branches did he interview? If so, he didn’t seem to get a lot of information.
Branches might not speak English, you never know. And those branches were probably feeling really traumatized after falling over so abruptly.
I said trying to interview, not (actually) interviewing people. I saw him introduce himself to one person, who just shrugged I’m not interested.
That’s a strong wall
hopefully they replant another right away
Hurry! because not enough trees for dogs to pee on…..!
Don’t hold your breath.
no one would remove one if you did not want to wait for them
Huh? I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Once the tree is removed it will take months for them to plant another one.
It’d be great to spend a *fraction* of the money NYC wastes on useless policing units (horses, anyone???) on our parks and urban forest.
Mounted police are awesome! Really good in crowds, and really good for helping (at least some) people feel comfortable talking to the police.
I guess you missed that amazing video of the officer and horse chasing down a suspect on 72nd street this summer?
Precisely how many tens of millions of dollars were paid out to that one unit last year? Is it worth that single arrest for a purse snatcher?
We can’t have nice things here because the NYPD continue to hoover up huge % of the budget and costing the city for legal settlements and ineffective traffic enforcement. Look at it as cost effectiveness – you’re not getting remotely what you put in
Horses are SO important to crowd control. Don’t denigrate the roll of horses. People are afraid to challenge horses and they are great peacekeepers in any situation of potential riots
Oh so they’re used to abuse people exercising their first amendment rights? Saying the quiet part out loud – and I was under the hooves of one of those horses during the anti-war demonstrations right before we went into Iraq.
That explains your obvious hatred of horses.
Horses are fine! Cops using horses to trample people exercising a constitutional right is pretty bad, no?
Because that’s very common. SMH
Please replace all the missing trees. They remove dead or damaged trees, but never come back snd replace them. .
Two large trees fell this past Sunday just down the block on West 94th between Central Park West and Columbus. The sidewalk was totally destroyed and has been roped off, pending a repair. Any bets on how long it’ll take to fix?
That’s Department of Transportation – they handle sidewalks.
But how about you organize your block to plant new trees yourselves? It wouldn’t cost too much, it would be great for community-building, meeting your neighbors, and encouraging people to take care of the trees on your block. Much better than griping and waiting for the City to do it, and not very difficult. I’d venture a guess that the urban forestry folks in the City would LOVE you if you did that, and they might also provide you the trees to plant (some cities do that, I don’t know about NY).
You could also check if there’s an NGO in the area that could help you with it. I know there’s one that helps with plantings in the islands on Broadway, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were others.
Unfortunately, people can’t just plant trees in the City where ever they want, and the types of trees are specified by the Parks Dept. The trees in the Broadway Malls are controlled by the Parks Dept. as well. The organization for street trees in NYC is Tree NY.
Well I hope all you people who don’t curb your dogs properly feel awful. Whether you contributed or not I’m blaming you lol
How about people start adopting trees instead of dogs?
We get it, Judd. You hate dogs.
No. The people (who don’t behave) who are attached to them.
Sad. Beautiful old growth tree. I am so glad no-one got hurt.
We live in a city of over 8 million people and I believe 30 million trees throughout the boroughs. Duh! We need more people in the Parks Department to tend to not only our parks, but the trees on the streets. People should also care….curb your dog whether it likes it or not!
It was a smart tree in that it knew to fall backwards from Central Park West into a wooded area of the Park where no one would be hurt and no structures would be damaged.