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City Hopes to Save Uprooted Tree that Survived 9/11

By DNAinfo Staff on March 16, 2010 12:49pm  | Updated on March 16, 2010 1:08pm

This tree survived the 9/11 attacks but was blown over during last weekend's storms.
This tree survived the 9/11 attacks but was blown over during last weekend's storms.
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NYC Parks and Recreation

By Mariel S. Clark

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A tough pear tree survived the 9/11 attacks only to be uprooted during this past weekend's storms, the New York Times reported.

But it may survive damage once again Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the paper.

The tree was originally planted in the World Trade Center plaza and managed to survive the attacks along with seven others, and was taken to the Arthur Ross Nursery in Van Cortlandt Park, the Times reported.

When it arrived at the nursery the tree was not much more than a trunk, most of its limbs had been destroyed.

“This was the one that was in the worst shape,” Benepe told the paper, adding that the tree was “soldered, twisted and gnarled and blackened.”

After years of flourishing under Parks Department worker's care, the tree had grown to 30 feet when the weekend storms hit, the Times reported.

Wind gusts of close to 50 mph tore through the area, uprooted the tree and blew it over.

The Parks Department hoped the tree would manage to recover again so that it might be moved back to the World Trade Center site as part of the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, Benepe told the Times.

“Everyone who has looked at it, our tree experts, think it can be saved,” Benepe told the paper. “The plan is to push it back in place and cover up its roots.”