For a few moments, Elizabeth Quaranta sat in the middle of a big pile of dirt where a beloved tree stump once stood.

Found along Mosholu Parkway South between Bainbridge and Marion avenues, the tree base once decorated with lilies and other ornaments was removed by the New York City Department of Parks on Feb. 18. The uprooting of the stump, once dubbed by Quaranta as the “Giving Tree,” left many community members mournful. To many, the tree stump served as the communal arbor for neighborhood residents, where many often met up to sit and chitchat.

“The community saw it as a sign of strength, as a sign of hope, and many community members took care of it,” said Quaranta, who serves as President of the Friends of Mosholu Parkland, a volunteer group that looks to maintain the parkway’s leafy landscape.

The tree stump was what was left of a enormous oak tree that toppled during Hurricane Sandy. Members of Friends of Mosholu Parkland had recently planted 500 daffodils and pink meadow flowers, and added 20 bags of soil to the area around the stump.

The community had also in the past enlisted teens from the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program to care for and maintain the stump as one of their responsibilities. It was yanked by the Department of Parks as part of efforts to remove the remains of trees that had come down along the parkway.

“Recent tree and tree stump removals along Mosholu Parkway were done with the intent to plant new trees through our capital contracts,” said a spokesman with the Parks Department. “We’re appreciative of the community’s love of trees and we look forward to giving them new ones.”

The stump had been so well-decorated that Quaranta was told by Parks’ removal crews at the scene that they weren’t sure about removing it out of concern that it was a makeshift memorial.

Quaranta was unaware of the stump’s fate until she stumbled upon the tree removal trucks at the park. Even after she leaped past the parkway’s barriers, she noticed the stump had already been three quarters removed. If she had known sooner, she said, she may have been able to ask the Parks Department to spare the cherished stump.

Quaranta said the community is considering efforts to memorialize the tree stump by either creating a mural at a nearby playground, making it the cover of the Friends of Mosholu Parkland’s calendar, or planting a garden or another tree in the stump’s place.

“The tree stump was a broken soul,” said Quaranta. “But it really had a positive effect on us.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.