Counting Down to Earth Day 2015

“We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.” – Dakota Nation

Original 1970 Earth Day logo

Earth Day 2015 is just days away. How do you plan to observe it?

Once again my husband Don and I have pledged to ride in New Haven’s Annual Earth Day Ride, better known as “Rock to Rock,” taking place this year on Saturday, April 25.

Riders pledge to complete an 8-mile, 12-mile, 20-mile, 40-mile, or metric century routes and solicit donations for some two dozen local environmental groups. All rides begin at West Rock and end at East Rock, hence the name “Rock to Rock.”

In its first year, 300 riders raised about $10,000 overall. Last year 1,100 riders registered, and despite a cold, driving rain, 700 still showed up to complete the ride to East Rock, raising $150,000. Organizers hope that this year’s event, the 7th Annual Earth Day Ride, will have 1,500 riders and raise $200,000.

Nicely wrapped prize!

You can read more about Rock to Rock in this story in the New Haven Independent covering the February 6 launch party. I signed up that night and my name was drawn as the lucky winner of 25 tokens to the CitySeed farmers market!

We ride for the Urban Resources Initiative (URI), Team Lorax. URI has planted thousands of trees in New Haven through its Community Greenspace and GreenSkills programs. 

This year our ride has a special significance: we will be riding for the first time as grandparents! We hope you will consider supporting us in our quest to make the world a better place for all future generations.

Here is the link to my fundraising page.

And the link to Don’s.

Thanks for your support. Keep your fingers crossed that my good luck continues and that we have sunny skies on April 25.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

On My Radar 3.1.14

Recent News. Happenings. Discoveries…Here are some of the items on my radar.

METEOROLOGICAL NEWS:

The West has finally gotten some rain, but too much, too fast, with some devastating results. All that rain did little to mitigate the multi-year drought. One official opined that it would have to rain every other day until May just to reach average precipitation levels.

Storm Titan is now making its way across the country.  The Northeast, once again in the grip of the Polar Vortex, is waiting to see how much snow Titan will deposit during its visit here. 

The smog that blanketed much of northern China, including the city of Beijing, last week has dissipated somewhat, but a report in Mashable predicts such problems will continue until dramatic steps are taken to reduce pollutants. In early December, Shanghai, on the coast of central China, was shrouded in smog. You can see the dramatic images here. Time claims that China’s smog is being called a “Nuclear Winter.”  

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

In advance of Thursday’s public hearing on United Illuminating’s Vegetation Management Plan, Urban Resources Initiative (URI) has issued its position. You can read it in its entirety here. In summary, URI calls for:  

• A balanced approach to securing electrical power reliability by removing hazardous trees and branches while retaining healthy trees
• A comprehensive review of all trees
• Development of a detailed plan for removal or pruning
• Replacement planting
• Undergrounding of distribution wires as a long-term solution

The public is invited to sign up to make brief comments at this meeting. URI urges all lovers of trees to turn out; a large audience will send a strong message. Details on the time and place are below.

The Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, a fundraiser for environmental causes in New Haven, is less than two months away. The snow should be gone by then, and organizers are urging all past and future riders to commit — now! Join a team and start collecting pledges!

Justin Elicker, former Ward 10 Alder and Mayoral Candidate, was recently named Executive Director of the New Haven Land Trust. The Land Trust cares for and manages 80 acres of property and oversees 50 community vegetable gardens across the City. “I am thrilled to take on this challenge as executive director,” Elicker said. “As the state’s first urban land trust and one of New Haven’s pioneers of urban agriculture, the Land Trust has a history of being visionary while delivering a direct and positive impact on the daily lives of our city’s residents. I look forward to building upon the Land Trust’s strong relationships with communities throughout the city to increase access to healthy food, foster environmental stewardship and facilitate strengthening connections within and across all of New Haven’s neighborhoods.”

Rachel Ziesk, Community Garden Manager at the Land Trust, is thinking ahead to Spring. In her blog Organic Gardening she has been posting tips for garden planning. Her latest post discusses what to consider as you flip through those beautiful seed catalogs.

FOOD NEWS:

The nutrition label on food packages may get its first makeover in 20 years. If the recommendations are approved, a consumer will no longer need to do mental math to calculate calories and nutrition information. The two most dramatic changes proposed are updates to serving sizes and a larger, bolder type face for the calories in the product.

Chipotle is rolling out Braised Tofu Sofritos, the first item to become a permanent addition to the menu since salads were added in 2005. The organic tofu experiment began in 2013 with seven locations in the Bay Area. This item is not available in Connecticut yet, but Chipotle advises “stay tuned.” According to Bloomberg Business Week, Tofu Sofritos should be an option in all 1,572 U.S. stores by the end of 2014.

RELATIVE NEWS:

My niece Sophie, college sophomore and blogger at Philo-Sophie is planning a summer service trip to Haiti. You can read more about it here. 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, March 6th

6:30 pm

Hamden Middle School, 2623 Dixwell Avenue

Technical Meeting and Public Info Session

hosted by PURA with a presentation by United Illuminating (UI)

In response to public objections to the UI plan adopting Enhanced Tree Trimming or Tree Removal (ETT/ETR) 

March 19th

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Chipotle, 910 Chapel Street, New Haven

New Haven Green Drinks 

Chris Schweitzer (New Haven/León Sister City Project) and 

Joel Tolman (Common Ground High School) will speak on 

the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride

Chipotle will donate half of all sales, including Margaritas and beer purchases, between 5 pm and 9 pm to support Rock to Rock.

New Haven Celebrates 375 Years…

And plants a tree.

The historic New Haven Green was abuzz with activity on this impossibly gorgeous spring afternoon, all to commemorate the City’s 375th birthday.

What brought us out was the opportunity to participate in a bit of history — the planting of a Pin Oak tree in the exact spot on the Upper Green where the Lincoln Oak had stood. 

The Lincoln Oak was planted by the City of New Haven in 1909 to commemorate the birth of Abraham Lincoln 100 years before. It was uprooted last October during Hurricane Sandy.

Many people helped to plant the new Pin Oak Quercus palustris 

The tree was standing upright in the ground, well in advance of the 1:30 ceremony. URI and its newest GreenSkills workers did much of the heavy work.

Note the donut hole, required for proper planting.

Associate Director Chris Ozyck shared his wisdom 

with the workers and curious bystanders.

After the lesson, everyone jumped into action.

The public was invited to take part in this historic event.

The dignitaries arrived.

They threw their dirt into the donut hole, having missed the lesson.

All’s well that ends well.

Planted to just the right depth, and properly mulched and watered, the 
New Haven Green’s newest resident looks stately in its new home.

For those of you interested in history, here is some more about the 1909 Lincoln Oak.

This tree and the City made the news when human skeletal remains were discovered entangled in the trees upended roots. 

Those who know the Green and its history were only mildly surprised by the discovery. The New Haven Green was once the City’s burying ground. Historian and artist Rob Greenberg reminded us of that fact today with his display of rubbings from gravestones that stood on the Upper Green until they were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery, established in 1797, after the burial ground on the Green became too crowded. 

The skeletons are still being studied. Drew Days, one of the Proprietors of the New Haven Green, announced today that there will be a re-internment of the remains on the Green once the investigation is over. He speculates that there is still much to be learned from the bones.

Rob Greenberg has been doing research on the tree every since last October. He recently discovered a newspaper article indicating that this same tree had suffered a close call in 1961 during Hurricane Esther. The newspaper headline read: “Bones of Man, Child Unicoverd On Green By Surprised Workers.” On that occasion, the tree was only partially uprooted, and workers were able to get it back into the ground where it survived for 5 more decades.

The Lincoln Oak was marked with a plaque, anchored into the ground by a cement footing.

Partly due to Greenberg’s persistence, the footing was examined and x-rayed by the New Haven bomb squad, studied by the State Archaeologist and several Quinnipiac University  (QU) professors, and then taken to the digital imaging lab at QU. The scans revealed two time capsules. On the Green today the Parks Department was soliciting guesses about what mystery items they contain.

No time capsule was buried during the tree planting ceremony today. That, too, may come later. 

For now, that’s all I’ve got.

Happy Birthday, New Haven!

Counting Down to Earth Day 2013: 4.13.13

This is the fourth day of my Counting Down to Earth Day 2013 challenge. Yes, I realize that it's late in the day, but it’s still April 13!

As I continue with the theme of growing things, my fourth tip is a little more specific.

Today’s Tip: PLANT A TREE

Trees are valuable for many reasons.

The Arbor Foundation, founded in 1972, the centennial of the first observance of Arbor Day, is a nonprofit dedicated to the planting of trees. The Foundation has compiled statistics from all kinds of sources about why trees are good for the planet, wildlife, and real estate values!

Here are just a few:

• “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.” —U.S. Department of Agriculture

• “Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property’s value.” —USDA Forest Service

• “The planting of trees means improved water quality, resulting in less runoff and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply. Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals into streams.” —USDA Forest Service

• “In laboratory research, visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension.” —Dr. Roger S. Ulrich Texas A&M University

• “There are about 60– to 200-million spaces along our city streets where trees could be planted. This translates to the potential to absorb 33 million more tons of CO² every year, and saving $4 billion in energy costs.” —National Wildlife Federation

New Haven, Connecticut, where I live, appreciates the importance of trees. The City has undertaken an ambitious program — TreeHaven | 10 K — with the goal of planting 10,000 trees in 5 years. The trees are being planted by Urban Resources Institute (URI), the group I am supporting in next Saturday’s Rock to Rock Ride. 

If you  live in New Haven, you can request a tree, to be planted by URI, at no cost to you. But first you must sign a pledge that you will care for your new tree. Newly planted trees require 25 gallons of water per week during the growing seasons (from bud-break to leaf-drop) for the first three years.

If you decide to plant a tree, please think carefully before you buy one. Think of your site. How much sun do you have? What is your zone? What is your soil like? How much space do you have? Talk to an arborist or a reputable nursery before making your final decision.

To start you off, here is a slideshow of trees you should NEVER plant. 

Come back tomorrow for a new tip as we count down to Earth Day on April 22.

Love Your Mother (Earth). Pass it on. Together we can make a difference. Yes, we can!

Old News Is Still Good News: Planting Trees in Wooster Square Park

I’m a bit behind in my posts. As my favorite Beatle (John) once penned, “Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.” So what if this news is a few weeks old? It’s a good story even if it is a bit late.

On May 12, as part of the Yale Day of Service, Urban Resources Initiative (URI) staff and interns, along with a crew of eager volunteers (of which I was one) planted four trees in New Haven’s Wooster Square Park. Two were Yoshino cherries, replacements for older ones which had been removed as part of the maintenance plan for the park’s scenic border. The original cherry trees were planted in the ‘60s and have a relatively short life — normally 40 years tops. We also planted two oaks – one a Bur and the other a Swamp White. 

The cherry on its way to its new home.
Photo by Michael Marsland/Yale University.

Normally I am on a bike when traveling to Wooster Square for the City Seed Market. That day I was a team leader, standing in the center of the park waiting for the volunteers to arrive. I have to confess that I had never before noticed the variety of trees in Wooster Square Park, which is watched over by a number of neighborhood groups serving as volunteer stewards. From one group's board member we learned that the park was meant to recreate a forest. Originally it contained only woodland species, none flowering, and only one an evergreen. Some of its less common species include a Kentucky Coffeetree and a Buckthorn.

I will not ever take this park for granted again, nor will I pass through it quite so quickly. And I will definitely keep an eye on the new cherry tree I helped plant, especially since it’s in front of the house of a friend from many years ago.

The cherry in place in the line of trees at the park border.
June 16, 2012, one of the most beautiful days ever.

I have often written about my experiences with URI including here and here. This visionary group is a not-for-profit partnership with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies which fosters community-base land stewardship, promotes environmental education, and advances the practice of urban forestry. Its initiatives include TreeHaven | 10 K (a partnership with the City of New Haven to plant 10,000 trees over five years), GreenSkills (a local green jobs program that employes high school students and ex-offenders through the planting of trees), and Community Green Space (a program which provides materials, technical advice, and training to support the reclamation and maintenance of abandoned land in New Haven neighborhoods.) Beaver Ponds Park where I am doing some of my Master Gardener outreach service this summer is a Community Green Space project.

From now through July 8 there is an easy way to help the work of these planters and stewards of trees. URI is taking part in Stratton Faxon’s $200,000 Community Builder Contest. The law firm has pre-selected four local charities to share $200,000. The charity with the most votes will win the grand prize— $100,000; the three runners-up will each receive $25,000. In addition to voting for one of the four, each site visitor has the opportunity to write in one additional favorite charity to be awarded the remaining $25,000 in the prize. While each of these groups is worthy, I urge you to cast your vote for Common Ground, a local high school which organizes the annual Rock to Rock fundraising ride and partners with URI in tree planting projects, and then to enter URI in the write-in section. Please encourage tree planters, park lovers, and everyone you know who cares about New Haven to vote. If URI wins they will hire more teens to plant trees and support more volunteer groups to take on environmental projects to improve their neighborhoods. They will surely put the money to good use. [Apologies to my friends in all the other groups which are in the running. I wish I could write in each of you.] 

The URI Wooster Square planting site was one of 17 projects in the greater New Haven area and one of 250 projects that took place worldwide on May 12, the 4th annual Yale Day of Service. An estimated 3500 people volunteered. This is my 3rd tree planting project with URI (fourth if you count finding a home for little spruce).

Saturday Short Subjects: Little Spruce Finds a Home

A home for a spruce tree, a home of his own. Where would a spruce tree find a home?*

Little spruce began his life in a small tube, one of many Colorado Blue spruces (Picea pungens) destined to be distributed by the National Arbor Day Foundation. He came to us some years back as an Earth Day present for recycling an ancient air conditioner.

We planted little spruce in a pot, placed him outdoors in our sunniest spot, watered him well, fed him, and watched him grow. We transplanted him a couple of times, always knowing that someday his roots would need to be in the ground. Our .07 acre lot was simply not big enough to support another tree. 

But where would this spruce tree find a home?

This year it was obvious that the time had come to plant little spruce permanently. Luckily I now knew just where to turn for help. My friends at URI (Urban Resources Initiative) suggested Beaver Ponds Park, on the west side of town and promised to move little spruce there if the Beaver Ponds Park volunteers were interested.

Indeed they were and they had a perfect spot in mind – in a little grove of new conifers, one red cedar and two white spruces that were planted by URI during Rock to Rock. 

On Wednesday, URI intern Jancy came by in her truck and drove little spruce to the grove across town.

On Thursday, Nan and Bill, stalwart Friends of Beaver Ponds Park, transplanted him.

Doesn’t he look happy? We certainly are.

Thanks to everyone who made this move possible.

Have a great Saturday and a perfect weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

*Apologies to the late Margaret Wise Brown, author of the beloved children’s classic Home for a Bunny. 

A Busy Day for Yalies

3,500 Yalies the world over rolled up their sleeves and got to work on May 14 for the 3rd annual Global Day of Service, sponsored by the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA). Some of them even got down and dirty with projects ranging from park clean-ups to tutoring at over 200 sites.

Me and a Gingko tree planted in ’10

The Day of Service began as a small pilot program with the Yale Club of New Haven (YCNH) in 2008. This year Chris Coffin, YCNH vice-president and Club Day of Service Coordinator for New Haven since the start, arranged activities for 17 sites around the city at which over 250 alums, employees, and friends volunteered. For each of the four years one of the New Haven sites has been designated for a tree planting project facilitated by Urban Resources Initiative (URI). URI has contracted with the City of New Haven to plant 10,000 trees in 5 years through a program called Tree Haven 10K: volunteer efforts in Middletown Avenue Park that Saturday brought the City six trees closer to the goal. 

Look closely, and you will see a nest.

After having the opportunity to plant a tree on State Street last year, I was hooked on this particular service project. I have a strong connection to  “my” Gingko bilboa and often take the opportunity to check up on it. On a recent walk-by I discovered that it held a nest in its branches, just above eye level, on one of New Haven’s busiest streets. 

Chris Ozyck, URI’s Greenspace manager, was (as always) at the URI Day of Service site to supervise the summer interns as they led the volunteers in their planting efforts. Chris knows what it takes for a tree to thrive, and he has very high standards. Planting a tree correctly takes a number of steps and some hard labor. But it is well worth the effort. If done correctly, the tree usually grows, actually appreciating in value over the years. How many other completed projects share that trait? Check out this recent article in the New Haven Independent for more on Chris and on the dos and don’ts of tree planting. 

Note that the trunk flare is exposed on this tree.

But back to the Middletown Avenue Park. We had three teams of volunteers that day, each led by a URI summer intern; mine was Amy Zvonar, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies ’12. Each team started out by planting a Sunset Red Maple. We de-turfed, dug the hole just to the depth of the trunk flare, threw the grass in upside down, mixed compost with the dirt we had excavated, placed the tree in the center of the hole, added back dirt/compost (not covering the trunk flare), made a donut to create a reservoir for watering, covered the donut with mulch, and watered with BioPak. Whew! But still, not too bad — much easier than the compacted dirt in the State Street tree wells last year. 

Me, Eric Berger, and Amy adding mulch to the donut.

Photo by Michael Marsland/Yale University.

After a brief rest we moved on to the next trees — my team and another planted Dawn Redwoods, the third team a Tulip Tree.

A Redwood — How exciting! Then I saw the challenging planting site — in the center of an overgrown patch of mugwort (believed by some to have magical properties). Magic didn’t play a role in the mugwort removal: this task required me to wield a pickaxe! Once the mugwort was cleared, the rest was pretty easy, a familiar drill by now. [I confess I let someone else fetch the compost.]

Two new Redwoods in a sea of invasive mugwort at the
Middletown Avenue Park's Quinnipiac Avenue border.

I checked back on Saturday to see how “my” trees and the others were doing. They looked great, although the mugwort was kind of high. I’ll let the Parks Department take care of that… 

Weekend Updates

Many readers told me they enjoyed the Weekend Updates I posted in late June so I’ve decided to make it a regular end-of-the-month feature.

Blog Updates (from oldest to most recent):

I have not seen a ladybug since one landed on me in March (3/20 post).

It is important to remember that the disaster in the Gulf is far from over (5/6 post).




Although oil has disappeared from the surface of the water in many places, serious questions have been raised about the amount of dispersants used and what the long-term effects of these chemicals might be.

The State Street trees in front of Channel 8 (5/17 post) are doing well despite the heat. Each tree now has a tag listing its species and information on how to request a tree of your own. Urban Resources Initiative (URI) emailed that they had planted 275 trees around the City of New Haven before “switching program gears to focus upon Community Greenspace.” Community Greenspace has assisted New Haven residents with developing pocket parks and community gardens throughout the City. 

The woodchuck wars continue to rage in Beaver Hills (6/16 post). My source tells me that the neighborhood shooter has switched to Havahart traps. He has caught at least one woodchuck baby (lured by some tender greens) and what happened to that unlucky victim remains a mystery. A skunk has been spotted heading under the garden shed, presumably keeping what remains of the woodchuck family company.

Chatham Seals

“Times Are Strange” (7/16 post) spoke of sightings of great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod. On Friday, July 30, Chatham officials closed South Beach to (human) swimming indefinitely after three great whites were sighted by a spotter plane. One shark was spotted cruising along the shore just 100 yards from a large group (of humans) assembled in a semicircle near a “Happy 30th” written in the sand. Officials advise that people swimming where it is still permitted avoid getting too close to the seals.

“Where Have All the Codfish Gone?” (7/21 post) was tweeted by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and generated quite a bit of interest at several sites dedicated to fishing issues. A blogger in Iceland who promotes the Icelandic fishing industry left a favorable comment. This eclectic blog has stories and videos on a wide variety of themes relating to fishing and fish: http://icelandicfish.tumblr.com/

Other News:

The New Haven Independent has listed ontheroadtogreenness as one of its favorites. You can find a link to my blog on their site under Road To Greenness.

Single-stream recycling has come to New Haven. In short, what this means is that you now no longer need to sort your recycling before you set it on the curb — just dump it all into your bin. I know it sounds crazy, but this video explains how this is possible.



But wait, there is even more to the trash/recycling story! A pilot program in which your current largish trash toter becomes your recycling bin and a new, smaller one becomes your trash toter, is scheduled to start soon in the New Haven neighborhood of Westville. You can read more about it at the Independent.

It’s been very hot here. We have had a hummingbird feeder in the yard but have not succeeded in attracting any hummers. The Fat Robin sent out a newsletter advising that you change the nectar every two days during this time of extreme heat, especially if you have located your feeder in a sunny area. During cooler times, twice a week is enough if the feeder is in the shade. The Fat Robin also stated, “If you haven't been very successful with attracting hummingbirds to your yard, don't give up! The BEST time in Connecticut is yet to come (very soon in fact)!”

It is now the first day of August, too early for the statistics for July. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its State of the Climate Global Analysis for June. NOAA reports that June 2010 was the warmest June on record, and that April-June 2010 was the warmest three-month period for the Northern Hemisphere.

During these exceedingly hot days in the Northeast we heard frequent references to the Heat Index. This site explains what the Heat Index is and how the formula was derived, provides a Heat Index Calculator, and includes a chart indicating that it is dangerous for almost anyone whenever it is over 90° and even the least bit humid.

Finally, on a somewhat lighter note, a friend forwarded this story about a person who is researching and photographing the world’s oldest living things. How old they are will blow your mind. For sure.