From America’s Downtown, to the Bay in Gravesend, Brooklynites laid claim to these redwood trees!
A local artist who planted thousands of tiny saplings in MetroTech Center for a public-art installation returned to the plaza on Sunday to hand the trees out to passersby as he uprooted the exhibit.
One green-thumbed fan of the glen of growing Dawn redwoods in Spencer Finch’s “Lost Man Creek” project said he was thrilled to take home his potted specimen after months of walking by the installation.
“We had seen the exhibit for the last two years, and we love gardening,” said Bill Neri, who lives in Gravesend with his wife Maria. “Hopefully it gets a little warmer so it starts to bloom again.”
Finch brought his man-made forest of 4,000 one- to four-foot conifers to the commercial hub in October 2016, calling it a scaled-down recreation of the massive Redwood National Park in California.
The Dawn-redwood species, which can grow up to 130-feet tall and was long considered extinct until a scientist in its native China uncovered healthy trees there more than 70 years ago, then spread across the United States after its seeds were transported to the country.
And following the green-thing giveaway, the artist donated any unclaimed saplings to horticultural agencies across the state and city including the Department of Parks and Recreation, according to a rep for the Public-Art Fund, which staged Finch’s exhibit along with MetroTech developer Forest City Ratner.
