Now that trees have shed their leaves, you may be thinking of disposing of some of the branches and other wood debris that also have accumulated in your front and rear yards. The Department of Parks and Recreation has a warning for you: Do not dispose of “firewood or organic (i.e. green or untreated) woody debris from trees and shrubs, including living, dead, cut, or fallen branches, twigs, logs, stumps, roots, and anything 1/2 inch or over in diameter” in your garbage cans, trash bags or brown organics recycling bins. This is because Park Slope is in an area where the Asian Longhorned Beetle remains a problem.
Any branches and other wood debris less than a half-inch in diameter can be placed along with leaves in your brown organics recycling bin so that they can be collected on one your regular garbage pickup days. Branches and wood debris that are a half-inch or more in diameter have to tied up in bundles and collected at a prearranged time.
Information about how your wood debris should be bundled together with a form to schedule its collection can be found on the website https://www.nycgovparks.org/services/forestry/wood-debris/information or by googling nyc wood debris pickup. You may have to wait a few weeks before it is collected. John Casson reports that when he requested a pickup in mid-November, it was scheduled for early in December.