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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Why Are the Trees on Eastern Parkway Being Cut Down?

 About 30 trees will be removed from Eastern Parkway as part of a larger effort to mitigate the affect of saltwater from Hurricane Sandy on Brooklyn's trees.
About 30 trees will be removed from Eastern Parkway as part of a larger effort to mitigate the affect of saltwater from Hurricane Sandy on Brooklyn's trees.
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Is Eastern Parkway looking a little less green to you lately?

There’s a reason for that.

The Parks Department is in the middle of removing 29 trees from the parkway’s access roads and malls to help mitigate the lingering affects of Hurricane Sandy, the agency told DNAinfo New York.

The removal of the trees is part of a larger effort across the borough to identify and remove thousands of trees damaged by salt water from the 2012 storm. That project will cost about $3.2M, the city said.

The trees to be removed on Eastern Parkway are a handful of 48,000 trees inspected by the Parks Department in “inundation zones” after Sandy, they said. Only trees that are structurally unsound, in severe decline, dead or have low “leaf-out” (or leaf growth) will be removed, according to the agency. And every tree that is taken out in the borough will be replaced with a new sapling.

The department is also keeping an eye on the possibility that saltwater damage is causing the spread of a fungal growth, Splanchononema platani, that has damaged Brooklyn plane trees in the last sixth months.

Workers in cherry pickers began removing some Eastern Parkway trees last week near Franklin, Bedford and Washington avenues, according to photos posted by residents to the local message board Brooklynian.com.

A Parks Department spokeswoman said those trees will be replaced by new saplings by the spring of 2016.