Planting A Tree For Every Year, With Interest

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By Bill Slocum
Contributing Editor

Greenwich Tree Conservancy President Peter Malkin, state Rep. Livvy Floren, and GTC Vice President Cheryl Dunson at a recent tree planting in Bruce Park.
Greenwich Tree Conservancy President Peter Malkin, state Rep. Livvy Floren, and GTC Vice President Cheryl Dunson at a recent tree planting in Bruce Park.

When the Greenwich Tree Conservancy set a goal of planting 375 trees in 2015, to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the town’s founding, it was an admittedly daunting task.

“I thought it would be great if we could get close to that goal,” said Conservancy Executive Director JoAnn Messina.

The Conservancy did not merely reach 375; they exceeded it. All in all, 449 trees were planted by the Conservancy on town property in 2015, by far the most ever planted by the non-profit agency, which collaborates with the town on restocking trees on public land lost to attrition, blight, and storm damage.

The year before, in 2014, the Conservancy planted 360 trees—at the time a milestone, given that 250 trees a year is the norm. For the 370th anniversary in 2010, the Conservancy set a goal of 370 trees planted, and achieved it, though the planting ran into 2011. This year, the record-making 449th tree was planted on Dec. 7, thanks to an unseasonably mild winter.

“We definitely got a boost from the weather,” Messina added.

The Commemorative Tree Program also got an assist from the town Parks and Trees Division, which manages Greenwich’s tree stock on public lands. Typically, the Parks and Trees Division buys trees that the Conservancy pays to have planted, but this year, its manpower less taxed by other duties, it also planted “a fair amount,” according to town Parks and Trees Superintendent Bruce Spaman.

Spaman is also Greenwich’s tree warden, a post every Connecticut municipality is required to maintain under state law. As tree warden, he collaborates with the Conservancy both on tree plantings on public land (some 2,000 acres are town-owned in all, including parks, school properties, and street verges) and on heightening appreciation for the role of trees in the community.

“They bring an awareness that swells beyond what I can do alone,” Spaman said. “They tend to help us monetarily, too. Basically, by paying the costs of planting trees, and leaving us the cost of purchasing them, they are doubling the dollars available to the town.”

Founded in January 2007, the Conservancy began planting trees in earnest the following year, Messina said. The Conservancy’s mission assumed greater importance in 2010, when the first of four giant storms ripped through town in quick succession.

“From 2010 to 2011, Greenwich lost some 800 trees to storms, with approximately 60 percent being on private land,” Messina said. “We can’t plant on private land, but we can on public land, so that’s what we do.”

After this year’s banner success, Messina says the public tree stock may well be back at pre-2010 levels. “We’re pretty close,” she said. “I’d say we even gained a little with the 449. We’re definitely ahead of where we thought we’d be.”

The Conservancy is focused on planting mostly deciduous trees, as their leaf canopies and root networks (which are broader than conifer trees) provide benefits such as improving air quality and preventing floods.

Messina says the Conservancy has been focused on planting oak, maple, and locust trees, but also likes to incorporate more showy ornamentals, such as dogwoods and cherries. There are even pear-tree plantings on occasion.

“There are many people who really value trees in this community, who understand what trees bring and love seeing them growing on the streets outside their homes,” she noted.

 

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