As a supervisor of forestry and horticulture for the city of New York, Mauro Bacolo knows his job is an oxymoron of sorts.

Fighting the perception that the Big Apple is no place for trees and flowers, Bacolo points to the extensive amount of greenery under his supervision in the borough of Brooklyn alone.

"We have 13 acres under cultivation-mostly flower beds," he says. "There are also about 350,000 trees in Brooklyn, and we track 127,000 of them."

With a crew that ranges from five to 23 people depending on the season, Bacolo plants 165,000 bulbs each fall and 115,000 annuals each spring. In all, 77 flower beds cover an area of six acres, while lawns account for five acres and "green streets" make up another three. Green streets, Bacolo explains, are areas where concrete traffic dividers have been converted into flower beds.

A gardener by title, Bacolo also has expertise as a climber, pruner and arborist. His forte, however, is horticulture. "I know the plants very well. I understand their forms and structures and can recognize a plant out in the field," he explains. "I guess you could say that I recognize the trees in spite of the forest. I don't see the forest; I see the individual tree or shrub or perennial."

Bacolo takes pride in every square foot of cultivated land in Brooklyn, whether it's a small flower bed in a traffic island or the high-profile Promenade, a three-quarter-mile flower bed running along the East River. His favorite spot is a field of wildflowers and spring bulbs known as the Meadow. "It's a little half-acre stretch of greenery that you can see as you exit the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan," he explains. "If you get down in the middle of the Meadow, however, it's just a sea of flowers."

A Brooklyn resident all his life, Bacolo has seen many changes in the city's landscape, and he is pleased to report that cultivated areas are on the rise. New York City Parks Department Commissioner Henry Stern's Green Streets initiative has made a big difference, he says, as have the crime prevention efforts of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Even the vandalism to flower beds has subsided, he notes. "As you drive around, you can see a marked improvement in the quality of life here."

Bacolo also is doing his part to help with unemployment in New York. As part of the city's Work Employment Program, Bacolo's crews are composed largely of unskilled men and women being reintroduced into the workforce. Although this makes his task more difficult, Bacolo welcomes the opportunity to share his love of horticulture and impart a sense of ownership to his crews.

He tells them, "This is your neighborhood, your city, your block, your backyard, your borough. We're civil servants in the greatest city in the world.

"They should be proud of it," he says.

-Sharon Huss Roat, AS '87

Mauro Bacolo and his wife, Victoria Strychack-Bacolo, live in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Ocean Grove, N.J. Their son, Adrian, is a sophomore at the University of Delaware.