The Big Apple is making green off trees in the ‘burbs.
New York City is selling a massive amount of wood chopped forest land it manages around the 2,000-square-mile upstate reservoir system that provides tap water to 9 million Big Apple residents.
The Department of Environmental Protection sells the wood from dead and diseased trees, and overgrowth from the more than 200,000 acres of property around the reservoirs in the Catskill region – a buffer zone that protects the city’s water supply.
Timber companies are typically the buyers of wood from Gotham’s foresters.
The current sale includes an estimated 187,000 square feet of hardwood sawtimber and 89 cords of hardwood pulp, according to a notice for bidders published by DEP.
Each cord could weigh up to 5,000 pounds each – or 2.5 tons.
The wood products for the sale, part of the Carpenters Eddy East Forest Management Project, are located near state Highway 10 in Delaware County.
“This sale is comprised of mostly mature red oak and white ash and will be the first entry to the area for management in nearly 80 years,” DEP said.
Last year, DEP sold 901,289 feet of timber and 1,338 cords of firewood for $156,000.
That makes the city of New York one of the state’s largest providers of wood products.
So far this fiscal year, DEP has sold 249,596 feet of timber and 310 cords of firewood.
The huge city reservoir system in and around the Catskills region is the size of the state of Delaware.
It gives the Big Apple a huge presence upstate.
New York City is the top taxpayer in four upstate counties and the DEP maintains the longest water tunnel in the world – the Delaware Aqueduct at 85 miles.
Thousands of state residents are granted access to fish, hike, hunt and boat in the city watershed filled with pristine waterways and hiking trails.
The city last year issued 23,173 permits for hiking and hunting, 2,103 boating/fishing permits and 1,232 permits for recreational boating.
