Trees Used By Homeless in Prospect Park Cut Down

Prospect Park workers cut down the hollow trees that .

Last week Patch reported that . 

Prospect Park Alliance spokesman Paul Nelson said the trees are healthy, but were "reaching the end of their life cycle."

So far, about a dozen have been cut down and others pruned, Nelson said.

Last Wedesday, Jan. 5, and cleaned up the trash in the area two days after the existence of the tree squatters was reported in the press.

When Patch visited the site last week, there plenty of signs that people were living there including a frying pan propped next to a tree, ashes from recent fires, cardboard placed on the ground inside of the larger trunks and even, at one site, what looked like a jerry-rigged Nautilus machine (see photo gallery at right).

None of the residents were at the site during the Jan. 5 clean-up, and all of the squatter's possessions found were thrown away. Nelson said the Parks Department doesn't have a place to store them.

Before the clean-up, workers from the city’s Department of Homeless Services tried to make contact with the park residents and get them into shelters, Nelson said.