The Garden Club of New Haven tree project

“American Elms in New Haven: on its Green and in its Neighborhoods”

In May, the members approved the Garden Club of New Haven's tree project, which will be a part of GCA's 100th anniversary celebration in 2013. The organization has chosen to commemorate this milestone with trees. The GCA project is called: “2013 Preserving the Past, Growing the Future”. Its theme is Trees, Our Living Legacy – and it is an overarching project designed to have a significant impact throughout the country. Each of the 198 GCA clubs will have a tree project.

The basis of our project is the work undertaken 25 years ago by our garden club members with the trees on the New Haven Green. At that time, our members raised $100,000 from community partners and planted more than 100 trees on the Green.  Our club, in partnership with the Proprietors of the Green and the New Haven Parks Department, has maintained these plantings and replaced trees, as needed, ever since. Thanks to this ambitious initial undertaking and steadfast stewardship, the New Haven Green is as beautiful today as it ever was. With their work, our members left us an extraordinary legacy upon which we will build our 2013 project.

The goal of “American Elms in New Haven: on its Green and in its Neighborhoods” is to re-educate visitors, residents and particularly youth about the history of the American elm and its importance to the character of New Haven and its Green. We want to reconnect our community to our identity as “The Elm City.”  We hope to do this through three initiatives:

§       The propogation, planting, and documentation of American elm trees in neighborhoods throughout New Haven

§       The creation and distribution, through philanthropy and sales,  of a DVD which will chronicle the history of the elms, especially on the Green, for future generations of  "Elm City" residents and visitors

§        The creation of a self-guided walking tour of the Green 
 
For our American elm  propogation, we are fortunnate to have expert guidance from an authority on elm trees at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station, Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis.

*       Many members volunteered to adopt elm seedlings, so this part of the project is underway. Forty-six "babies" have been potted and placed in homes. Next spring, we will harvest more seedlings and put them up for adoption. Some members will keep their seedlings and grow elm trees in their yards. Others are keeping their seedlings in foster care, and the club will give these established trees to schools and other interested parties in 2013.

For our documentary about the elms on the Green and the lives led under those elms, we have the expert guidance of Karyl Evans, our member and an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker.

The development of the walking tour will grow out of the research done on both the film and the propagation of the elm seedlings.

Over the next 3 years, the club will forge new partnerships and strengthen existing ones with other organizations throughout the New Haven community. We hope that those organizations will include the Proprietors of the Green, Yale University, the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, the City of New Haven, the New Haven Museum and Historical Society, the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the New Haven Preservation Trust, among others.

Our plan presumes that the garden club will make a significant contribution to the project and will seek matching contributions from interested community parties in order to fulfill the funding requirements.


If you have any questions about the project, please contact one of the members of the committee: Bonnie Byers, Cordalie Benoit, Debbie Edwards, Amy Estabrook,
Karyl Evans, Mikey Hirschoff, Kathie Lundgren or Rosita Murphy.