Tribecan Comesto Rescue of ‘Abused’ Trees Every day, Greenwich Street resident Steve Boyce passes Washington Market Park on his way to work at the Bank of New York. And lately, he hasn’t liked what he’s seen. Along the park’s western edge, where a new playground is being constructed near Chambers Street, the roots of the honey locust and oak trees were buried deep under mulch. And every day, it seemed, more construction debris was piled up against the trunks. “I’ve been walking by all winter and saying, ‘Ah, they’ll be okay,’” said Boyce, who has been interested in trees since his boyhood in Fredonia, N.Y. “But when I saw more and more soil dumped on the trunks I said, ‘That’s it.’” In March, Boyce wrote to Matt Cahill, assistant director of urban forestry for Trees New York, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group. Cahill went to the park and identified 17 trees at risk, then alerted the Parks Department. “Honey locusts can take a lot of abuse, but it’s hard to say what’s going to happen,” said Cahill. “Eventually, it could stress the tree and lead to decline and death.” While Parks inspectors found only three oaks that needed the soil dug out from around their roots, the Long Island-based contractor, Billy Kay, was not off the hook. Boyce and Cahill, still unhappy about the deep mulching around the other trees and the mounting construction debris around the trunks, kept after the Parks Department. Last month, Kay was visited by Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, who issued $5,000 in fines, including four $1,000 summonses for “abuse of trees” and a $1,000 fine for unauthorized storage of heavy equipment. Kay, whose company has long held the maintenance contract for the park, did not return calls for comment. “It’s just not right. It’s sloppy,” said Bill Watson, president of the park’s volunteer board of directors. Watson said that Kay’s part of the playground construction is due to be completed this month, and that he expects the contractor to remove the heavy mulching, which he noted was done last year to help retain water during the dry summer. Margaret Asaro Peeler, the Parks Department’s deputy chief of operations, who has been observing the park, said she is not concerned about the high level of mulch. “I don’t consider it much of a problem,” she said. Nevertheless, by late last month workers had dug the mulch from around most of the trunks, and on his most recent visits to the park, Boyce finally felt relieved. “If they get the soil off the rest of the trees and it doesn’t wash back, that would be fabulous,” he said. “I will be satisfied.”