The Suffield Tree Committee would like to thank the Suffield Community Fund and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for supporting the joint vision of the Garden Club and the committee through its generous donation to fund a Tree Planting Plan for Main Street and the town greens.
Kerisha Rowe, staff member, and Natalia Druzga, a student participant in the East Windsor Transition Program, worked with Suffield Tree Committee members to collect, bag, and label samples.
Students and staff from the East Windsor Transition Program worked alongside Suffield Tree Committee members. Left to right: Todd Mervosh, Michele Holcombe, Kerisha Rowe and Natalia Druzia.
Land Canvas Landscape Architecture, a Connecticut company, has been hired to develop a ten-year, phased plan. The goal is to provide the Suffield Tree Committee with actionable steps toward visible progress and a means to raise the necessary additional funds to ensure the continued existence of the tree canopy in the heart of our town center for generations to come.
Here’s what’s been happening: Over the last few months, the landscape architects of Land Canvas have been on site creating a detailed plan which includes identifying and mapping new planting sites and making tree selections for each location that take into account existing trees, historic surroundings, and community use.
When selecting trees, Land Canvas is also working to balance the site-specific considerations of soil conditions, underground, overhead and sight lines restrictions with project-wide goals of increasing diversity and utilizing promising new varieties and native species.
During this first phase, the Suffield Tree Committee has been playing a supporting role. We’ve been gathering information and working with Town officials and Garden Club members to further the plan. You may have noticed work being done to improve the greens with aeration and over seeding or seen students, committee and club members collecting soil samples for analysis.
The initial work is ongoing and will continue through the end of the year, after which we’ll take a more active role planning for the roll-out of Phase 2. Look for an update this spring.