HerbalEGram:Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2012

The Northeast United States, which was recently hit by Hurricane Sandy, is home to many botanical and dietary supplement organizations and companies. Some have been impacted by the storm more than others, depending on geographic proximity to Sandy’s strongest forces.


Botanic Gardens and Parks

Several New York area parks and botanic gardens lost a number of trees and sustained damage to their grounds from Hurricane Sandy. While this does not compare to the destruction and loss of life and basic necessities experienced by people throughout the region, most gardens and parks wish to recover as quickly as possible in order to offer New Yorkers a place to relax in nature and recover their spirits after the storm’s devastation.

Thankfully, most other plants in the garden rode out the storm quite well.

“With the herb garden, everything was pretty low to the ground and everything looks just fine,” said Margaret Falk, NYBG’s associate vice-president for landscape, gardens, and living collections (oral communication, November 5, 2012). “The crab apple trees [Malus spp.] were all fine. The fruit didn’t even get blown off. The perennial garden sustained very little damage. The rose garden, and this is remarkable for early-November, still has roses in bloom.”

As New Yorkers and other East Coast residents were hunkering down or evacuating in expectation of Sandy’s landfall, staff at NYBG was preparing the grounds for the extreme weather. Falk noted that much of the preparations, though rather common-sense, went far in protecting numerous plants. All of the potted rose standards (Rosa spp.) were moved indoors, as were the beautiful potted bay laurel standards (Laurus nobilis), which the garden has had for many years. Potted olive trees (Olea europaea) in the herb garden were tipped over and tied so that the tops could not fly off. 

While the garden always tries to maintain its trees for good health by carrying out proper pruning and other activities, Falk said, “We can’t guard against the big trees blowing over. There’s some damage you simply can’t prevent. The wind is too strong and comes from just the right direction and gravity takes hold and knocks it down.”

After several days of closure, NYBG reopened to the public on Thursday, November 1^st. Falk said a fair number of families and visitors have been stopping by. Still, the recovery process is ongoing. Though much of it consists of a natural lifecycle process — such as a tree falling, recycling nutrients into the soil, opening up the canopy to allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor, and thus helping seedlings and young plants grow — staff still need to do many things in order to restore the garden to its normal state. NYBG has started a Fund for the Trees donation campaign to raise money for the garden’s extensive restoration efforts. 

“The cleanup effort is a very large one and involves the entire horticulture staff working very hard to make the garden safe and beautiful again,” said Falk. “It’s a much longer process to assess other damage that doesn’t appear immediately.”

Next steps include staff clearing any remaining trunks and branches, climbing trees to assess potential splitting that can cause parts of the trees to die, deciding what to replant in areas that lost trees in order to maintain species mix and genetic diversity, and collecting seeds from the garden to grow for restoration plantings. Any tree and plant debris that cannot be used by NYBG for composting or recycling into benches and children’s stump stools will be donated to Rocking the Boat, a nonprofit that educates local at-risk children on how to build, row, and sail boats, as well as clean up urban waterways.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) fared somewhat better, losing about 20 trees,² including several 80-year-old little-leaf linden trees (Tilia cordata).³ Approximately 30 others — including several large pin oaks (Quercus palustris) and a “historically significant” Chinese parasol tree (Firmiana simplex) — sustained damage. BBG was closed most of the week and reopened the majority of its grounds on Friday, November 2^nd. According to Kate Blumm, BBG’s communications manager, staff members were able to prepare the garden before Sandy hit land. 

“Our horticulture team, particularly our arborists, did a careful sweep of the grounds ahead of the storm to assess and prepare trees and protect other parts of the Garden’s collections as best as possible to mitigate damage from the wind,” said Blumm (email, November 5, 2012). “This definitely contributed to the fact that we fared well, compared to what could have been.”

BBG’s herb garden experienced minor damage, including the loss of an apple tree (Malus domestica).

“Overall it did very well, though,” said Blumm, “and was open to the public from the time that BBG re-opened last Friday. We all breathed a big sigh of relief that the Herb Garden — which opened in 2010 after being relocated and considerably expanded — was largely spared, and is still offering some beautiful autumn colors and textures.” 

BBG’s clean-up process is expected to take about 3 more weeks. Blumm noted that BBG is welcoming donations so that it may continue with its efforts to bring the garden back to its full glory. 

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Staten Island, New York — one of the areas struck hardest by Hurricane Sandy — reportedly lost about 24 trees, with many others damaged, some to the extent that they had to be removed from the ground.⁴ Chief Executive Officer Lynn B. Kelly wrote in a press release, “Snug Harbor’s 83-acre site sits on the New York waterfront and as such Hurricane Sandy had significant impact. Hurricane Sandy tore through our campus, leaving large trees split, uprooted, and destroyed. Light poles, signs, telephone wires, iron fences, and our dock were toppled, shattered, or severely damaged.”⁴

While Snug Harbor currently is reopening most of its campus, it is welcoming donations to aid the recovery effort. 

The United States Botanic Garden (USBG), located in Washington, DC, was closed for two days during the storm, but was able to reopen immediately afterward. “Fortunately, the USBG did not sustain any significant damages,” said Ari Novy, PhD, USBG public programs manager (email, November 4, 2012). “Thanks to the wonderful work of our team, we were able to open back up as soon as the weather passed through. Our thoughts have also been with our colleagues to the north.”

New York City’s Central Park is estimating that about 650 trees were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Sandy, including an 8,700-lb swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), a large willow tree (Salix spp.), and two linden trees.^5,6 According to a November 1^st press release from Central Park Conservancy, “Many of the trees destroyed in the storm were more than a century old. The number of destroyed trees is expected to climb dramatically as inspections continue throughout the Park.” 

Parts of the Park reopened on Saturday, November 3^rd. The Conservancy is working with 12 contractor teams to continue the restoration effort. According to a November 11th New York Times article, “… forestry crews have piled trunks and branches near the park drive at 102nd Street. The mound reaches 20 feet high and runs the equivalent of two long city blocks.” Additionally, New York City park officials are estimating a huge loss of about 8,000 trees that once lined streets around the city.⁶


Herb and Dietary Supplement Businesses

Several herbal and dietary supplement companies also were in the path of Hurricane Sandy. According to an October 31^st article in The Record, Vitamin Shoppe headquarters — located in North Bergen, New Jersey, opposite of Manhattan across the Hudson River — were shut down.⁷  

Spice importer/exporter KHL Flavors in Masbeth, New York, part of the Queens borough, has been able to stay open for business.

“We were very fortunate,” said KHL Vice-President John Landes (email, November 5, 2012). “Most importantly in that all the staff survived without loss of their homes or injury, but also in that our warehouse and offices never lost power. Employees missed work on one or two days, depending on where they were coming from."

Landes noted that the main obstacle currently at hand is that many of the company’s stocking warehouses and local customers were still without power (as of November 5th), and the gasoline shortage is making deliveries and pickups difficult. 

“We were informed that some merchandise in a public warehouse was damaged by water, but they still can’t give us an accounting of what goods are affected,” said Landes. “So our business has been and certainly will continue to be impacted for some time to come.”

According to Naturopathica Founder and CEO Barbara Close, the East Hampton-based botanical skin-care company experienced no interruption in business operations. 

“We were very lucky,” said Close (email, November 6, 2012). “With [Hurricane] Irene, we lost power for five days. This time we got lucky as the brunt of the storm was further west toward NYC. We did not lose power or have flooding.”

When Triarco Industries, Inc., a supplier of natural and botanical ingredients, lost power in its Wayne, New Jersey office, staff set up a temporary command center in its Paterson, NJ manufacturing center in order to continue taking orders and making shipments. And the company’s South Carolina facility was untouched by the storm. Triarco President Rodger Rohde, Jr. said having manufacturing facilities in more than one state has helped immensely. 

“Our limitations are based upon our East Coast customers’ ability to accept shipments or independent truckers to bring materials in or get shipments out,” said Rohde (email, November 5, 2012). “Our team has done a great job adapting to a tough situation and making it work. A number of our employees, and including myself, still have no power in their homes; yet they get to work on time and continue to get the job done. We are very proud of the team we have and the job they continue to do.”


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Donations to various relief efforts are being welcomed for the following nonprofit botanic gardens:


New York Botanical Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden
Central Park Conservancy

—Lindsay Stafford Mader

References

1. Forrest T. Storm damage assessment from The New York Botanical Garden. New York Botanical Garden website. October 31, 2012. Available here. Accessed November 6, 2012.

2. Post-storm cleanup for gardens in Brooklyn, Bronx. Associated Press. October 31, 2012. Available here. Accessed November 2, 2012.