Greenwich Tree Conservancy

2022 Treasured Trees Celebration 10.20.2022

Greenwich Sentinel Column: Giants Among Us 10.7.2022

By John R. Conte

Take a walk anywhere in our beautiful sylvan town and you will be accompanied by giants. Silent, stoic, and imbued with magical powers, these benevolent Brobdingnagian beauties stand quietly, patiently, never asking, never imposing on we, the mere mortals at their feet. Yet despite their enormity, perhaps because of it, they are unseen in our busy days, filled with our self-imposed urgency. We overlook the magic of these alchemists, walking beneath their shade, breathing in the fresh oxygen they exhale, we are soothed by their presence without notice, without a care, and unaware of the profound effect they have upon us, and we upon them.

Their abundance hides them in plain sight, causing them to recede from our awareness. Just as the sky surrounds us and the ground supports our feet without a thought, we take them for granted. Arising out of almost nothing, their humble beginnings belie the magnificence of their potential. Potential that, with providence and good fortune, will transform the tiny seeds of their beginnings into the enormous sentinels of power and strength they hope to become.
But for all their majesty, for all their enormity, there is a frailty. A vulnerability to shifting conditions that renders these giants helpless to the changing world around them. Their quiet way of life relies on stability and consistency – rare commodities in our modern world.

Above our heads their great branches reach to the sky offering their leaves to the sun. Each one tilts and turns toward the light to receive maximum energy from the vibrating electrons beaming down. They perform the magic of photosynthesis day in and day out, creating their own food from carbon dioxide in the air and nutrients of the soil. Connected to the earth by millions of tiny pathways stretching from high atop each tiny leaf, deep down into the unseen, unimaginably complex network below. Their work continues relentlessly, silently, and patiently with a complexity we are only just beginning to understand.

This intricate network draws essential elements from the soil, aided by millions of mycelia, through a superhighway that moves vast quantities of water and nutrients from the ground to the sky and back again, without sound, without visible motion or effort, year after year. Through their twigs, branches, and roots, this work wages on, building an empire before our eyes, over our heads, yet below our awareness. Like the hands on a clock, never seen to move, yet always moving, the life within each tree flows on.

A lifetime on a scale that can span generations. And yet the frailty remains. These giants, so susceptible to change, so dependent on their locale, so little can bring it all to an end. Less water, less sunlight, less air in the soil, toxins seeping in, excavations ripping roots, coverings above the soil, climatic changes, floods, droughts, insects, disease, or sometimes simply time itself can bring about the slow draining of the magical life force that flows within them. When does a tree die? Why does a tree die? What is it that stops this miraculous process? The biology is complex and our understanding remains inadequate. But each tree’s individual success is dependent on a series of tenuous conditions dependent on outside forces. Their natural balance, their evolutionary safeguards, their very defenses, are often overwhelmed when we ask them to live in our created environments. The roadsides, parks, yards, playgrounds, and landscapes of our created landscape compounds the fragility of their being. This urban forest of our making becomes our responsibility. Like goldfish in a bowl, we control this environment. Each tree we plant comes with a responsibility of care. They become members of our community as we ask them to live among us. Remember these gentle giants. Look up into their branches. Feel their power and acknowledge them for all of their beauty and frailty. We live among giants, let’s keep it that way.

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the trees of Greenwich for the benefit of community health and quality of life.

John R. Conte is a Landscape Architect, Arborist of over 40 years, lifelong Greenwich resident and member of the GTC Advisory Board.

Moonlight Bruce Park Tree Walk 10.9.2022

Greenwich Time: Greenwich welcomes new robot lawn mower to the team that uses a greener and quieter technology 9.21.2022

For the small crowd gathered outside Town Hall for a demonstration of the town’s latest green initiative, it wasn’t what they heard that was notable. It was what they didn’t hear.

During the entire official ribbon-cutting presentation Wednesday afternoon, a new eco-friendly mower was cutting the front lawn of Town Hall — and no one heard a sound.

The new addition to the town’s team is a robotic lawn mower called Farmer Joe that makes no noise and produces no direct emissions — unlike a traditional gas-powered mower.

Another bonus: instead of leaving a mess of clippings that need to be cleaned up, Farmer Joe creates fine clippings over the grass that conserve moisture and act as a natural fertilizer by building the soil and feeding the microbial communities there.

“This is a small but significant step in leading and signaling to our community what is really needed and expected from all of us,” said Eric Horn, from the company Greenow that supplied Farmer Joe. “This machine is out-performing human beings in really anything when it comes to mowing practices.”

Read the full story at: https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Greenwich-welcomes-new-robot-lawn-mower-to-the-17457167.php#photo-22955443

 

2022 Treasured Trees Nominations

2022 Treasured Trees – Nominate Your Treasured Tree today!

 

In addition to a town wide Arboretum on public land, The Greenwich Tree Conservancy’s Treasured Trees Program highlights special trees on private properties to create respect for the many beautiful and unique trees to be found throughout our community.

Click here for more details on Treasured Trees and how to nominate your tree.

Greenwich Free Press: Greenwich Housing Authority Frustrated over High Cost of P&Z Process for Vinci Gardens 8.8.2022

On Tuesday Greenwich’s housing authority, recently rebranded “Greenwich Communities,” returned before the Greenwich Planning & Zoning commission with their application for Vinci Gardens, a 52-unit, all one-bedroom, senior and handicapped apartment building in Byram.

The jumbo apartment building would be located at the end of Vinci Drive where the housing authority already operates McKinney Terrace I (21 family apartments) and II, a 52-unit elderly building in the former Byram School, which is on the National Historic Register.

[…]

JoAnn Messina, director of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, said the issue was one of balance of green space, size of building and impact on the neighborhood.

She noted that the tree conservancy was in receipt of a $37,000 grant from the State to plant trees in Byram.

“This is an area that needs green. We have heat island effect. We have flooding issues. We have issues that are getting worse in this area,” Messina said.

Click here to read the full article.

Greenwich Free Press: P&Z Respond to Greenwich Ave Intersection Designs Updated by Greenscape Committee

A marathon P&Z meeting on Tuesday started with the municipal Improvement and Site Plan application for two intersection projects on Greenwich Avenue: Arch St/Havemeyer and Grigg/Fawcett.

The applications are being ushered through the approval process by DPW deputy commissioner Jim Michel.

At the July 7 P&Z meeting, feedback to Mr. Michel was that the design was too “engineer-ie” and should honor the historic nature of the area, particularly the triangle in front of the historic post office (now home to RH). The entire Avenue is a Historic National Register District.

Since the last meeting, the Greenscape committee, led by architect and Architectural Review Committee chair Richard Hein and landscape architect and ARC vice chair John Conte, made changes to the design.

Read the full story at https://greenwichfreepress.com/news/government/pz-respond-to-greenwich-ave-intersection-designs-updated-by-greenscape-committee-184220/

Greenwich Sentinel: News Briefs: July 15

July 15 Last Day For Treasured Tree Nominations

Do you have a tree on your property that you treasure? A tree is treasured for many reasons: it may be part of a special memory; it may have a special history or shape; it may be a particularly beautiful tree; or its size or age may be special. Nominate your treasured tree at https://wfagreenprod.wpengine.com/treasured-trees-nominations/

If your tree is selected, your tree will have a nameplate installed and you’ll be awarded a framed photograph of the nameplate installation ceremony at a special reception in the fall. Your tree will also be enrolled in the Greenwich Tree Conservancy’s roster of Treasured Trees.

Read the full story at https://www.greenwichsentinel.com/2022/07/15/news-briefs-july-15/