We’ve previously covered the irritation of seeing abandoned, rusting bikes clogging up a sidewalk. It’s one thing if they’re just taking up bike parking, but did you know that if they’re attached to trees, they’re also doing environmental damage? Now, one Brooklyn resident has started the Treedom Project, and is sticking up for the trees by clipping the locks that people so thoughtlessly leave on them to rust.
Williamsburg resident Rob Birdsong made it his mission to get chains off of trees after witnessing a scene that he described on his site as “watching the tree choke to death” as it slowly absorbed a chain wrapped around it. And in a way, it does choke: the tree can’t get sugar down to its roots and slowly dies. So after making a video in which he snapped the lock off of one tree, Birdsong is now asking people to send pictures of similarly chained trees to him, so that he can do the same for trees around Brooklyn.
He’s not just going around like a vigilante though. Birdsong is giving people plenty of warning and time to claim their bikes chained up to trees or just chains left on trees for some stupid reasons. If you end up recognizing a tree featured on the site, you’ve got until May 26 to get your bike or your lock, because that’s the day of reckoning for things choking trees out, and with any luck, a new day for trees around the borough.