Mitch Baron
URI Internship Year:
2021
Graduation Year:
2022
Mitch studies the intersection of religion and ecology at Yale Divinity School, an interest sparked by reading lots of Wendell Berry as an undergrad. He grew up among the verdant cornfields of (first) Missouri and (later) Illinois, but came to New Haven by way of New York City, where he attended NYU. (He promises he loves all these places equally!)
This is Mitch’s second year interning for URI; he worked part-time for Greenspace in the fall, for GreenSkills in the spring, and, in between, did some report-writing and inventory work.
Group
New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence
Quinnipiac Heights Action Team
Greenspace Log
| Date | Category | Photos | Group | Summary | |
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08/12/2021 |
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The Oyster Point volunteers wrapped up another summer of Greenspace by planting a new tree at Bayview Park by the highway! |
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08/10/2021 |
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The Shepard Street greenspace capped off a successful, productive summer season tonight—they finished up by spreading two final yards of mulch on the site and adding more pea gravel along the front fence. |
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08/07/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
On Saturday, we deadheaded hundreds of astilbe flowers and pulled lots of crabgrass at the Botanical Garden. |
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08/07/2021 |
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On our final Saturday at Cherry Ann, we weeded the beds by the Cherry Ann St. entrance, then added a couple liriope and catmint to fill some empty spots. |
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08/06/2021 |
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On Friday, we hung the new sign at the 219 Garden, then weeded and raked leaves from the Grace Street side of the Betty Thompson corner—next week, we'll finish up the summer on the Rock Street side. |
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08/05/2021 |
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This Thursday, we removed lots of vines and weeds from Bayview Park along the highway wall. |
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08/04/2021 |
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As always, the myriad volunteers at Beaver Ponds Park accomplished a variety of tasks during their final Wednesday evening workday of 2021. The children all painted colorful rocks to place in the children's garden, while other volunteers weeded the pondside garden, planted a few last perennials, removed overgrown brush and invasive species, and picked up trash. |
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08/03/2021 |
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We planted several perennials and and two shrubs in the garden and curbstrip at Shepard Street this week! We also continued to spread mulch throughout the site. |
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07/31/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
This Saturday at the Botanical Garden of Healing, we weeded and mulched the entrance beds—a large task, but one which our small crew nevertheless completed with gusto. Gary also continued to work on his ongoing project of removing the knotweed from the riverbed between the parking lot and the garden. |
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07/31/2021 |
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This Saturday at Cherry Ann Park, we watered the plants in the entrance beds, and talked about the importance of water to plants. Then, the kids solved a scavenger hunt in which they found leaves from several different species of trees throughout the park! |
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07/30/2021 |
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This Friday, we weeded and mulched the 219 Garden at Cedar Hill Avenue and Warren Place! |
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07/28/2021 |
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We planted a new sugar maple tree at Beaver Ponds Park last night, to replace the invasive trees we removed last week! We also planted several new flowers in the children's garden and the pondside garden, along with removing bittersweet vine from a juniper tree, continuing to cut down phragmites, and spreading more mulch. We also debuted the new boulders and logs at the children's garden that were put in place earlier that day. |
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07/27/2021 |
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On Tuesday evening, we finally finished restoring the path, by spreading another yard of stone dust, along with laying pea gravel between the sidewalk and the fence and spreading mulch in the center planting bed. |
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07/24/2021 |
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We planted a few flowers on the fort this Saturday, followed by clearing some brush from the trails and learning how to identify some different tree species! |
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07/24/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
We weeded and mulched the annual bed at the Botanical Garden on Saturday, along with replanting a few shrubs and perennials and deadheading the astilbes. |
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07/24/2021 |
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We added more flowers to the planting bed by the Cherry Ann Street entrance on Saturday, and replenished the mulch that the rain had washed away. |
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07/23/2021 |
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We finished weeding and mulched the median on English Dr. on Friday evening! |
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07/22/2021 |
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The crew at Oyster Point cleared lots of weeds and overgrown foliage from Triangle Park tonight! |
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07/21/2021 |
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The Friends of Beaver Ponds focused on removed invasive trees this weekend; they successfully removed one large ailanthus tree and several Norway maples—all without any power tools! The kids even helped too, cutting up the fallen trees into smaller pieces to carry to the brush pile. Meanwhile, other volunteers continued to weed garden beds and clear overgrown foliage by the pond. |
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07/20/2021 |
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We spread more stone dust over the path and mulched most of the north side at the Shepard St. greenspace last night! |
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07/17/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
With the help of a team of volunteers from M.A.L.E.S. (Men Achieving Leadership, Excellence, and Success), we weeded and mulched an entire planting bed this Saturday. |
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07/16/2021 |
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Kenya, Zaria, and I weeded Betty's Medium on English Drive on Friday evening—a successful first workday of the summer for the Cedar Hill group! |
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07/15/2021 |
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The crew at Oyster Point finished mulching and planting in the beach garden this week, along with pulling lots of weeds. |
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07/15/2021 |
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At Ft. Wooster this morning, Sue planted some perennials up on the fort, while Sam worked on spreading mulch on the trails and Judy swept leaves and debris from around the park entrance. We finished up the meeting by making plans for the rest of the season. |
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07/14/2021 |
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The Friends of Beaver Ponds Park accomplished a lot on Wednesday evening: they mulched the triangle garden at the corner of Fournier and Crescent Sts., weeded and mulched another garden bed along the pathway, cleared from around Kevin Jiang's memorial tree, and cleared a great deal of brush by the pond. Lots of kids eagerly assisted in all tasks—especially shoveling mulch! |
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07/13/2021 |
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This week, the volunteers at Shepard St. spread stone dust to extend the pathway to the back of the lot, planted a few hostas and a spirea bush, and spread mulch in the curbstrip. |
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07/10/2021 |
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This Saturday at Cherry Ann, the kids worked with Caro to plant new flowering perennials by the entrance, weeding at the entrance and at the community garden (with the help of some staff from Gather New Haven), picking up trash, pruning trees and shrubs, and sweeping the splash pad free of gravel. |
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07/07/2021 |
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Lots of tasks were completed at Beaver Ponds Park this Wednesday: Joan helped the children plant sunflower seeds in pots to take home; many volunteers helped to weed and spread mulch in the berm garden; James led a team that spread some large tarps by the pond to help prevent invasive phragmites from regrowing; Frank and some children used the water cart to water the berm garden (but, first, rescued a fish and a tadpole from the water cart); and Patrick, Kate, and Rebecca cleared the pathway to Crescent Street, and the adjacent garden, of weeds. |
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06/26/2021 |
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The kids at Cherry Ann Park planted a new shrub and several new perennials in the planting beds by the Cherry Ann St. entrance! The evening concluded with pizza at Miss Connie's home. |
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06/23/2021 |
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The Friends of Beaver Ponds Park's second workday this summer was another success! Joan and the children planted dozens of annual flowers in the children's garden; Frank cut down some undesired catalpa trees and removed other invasives; and the other volunteers helped pull weeds and spread mulch in the main garden beds. |
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06/22/2021 |
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The Friends of Ft. Wooster had their first workday as a Greenspace group on Tuesday. They planted four boxwood shrubs around the rock with the commemorative plaque, and spread mulch as well. |
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06/21/2021 |
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Just a few weeks ago, the liriope planted in the rear of the lot last year were barely visible, but after hard work by Jody, Tony, and Lauren weeding and spreading mulch, the two planting beds look great again. |
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06/19/2021 |
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This weekend, the kids at Cherry Ann Park spread mulch in the two garden beds by the Cherry Ann Street entrance. The beds look much better than they did two weeks ago, before the kids weeded and mulched them! |
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06/19/2021 |
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The Friends of Ft. Wooster Park had their first official meeting as a Greenspace group on Saturday! We walked around the park and talked about possibilities for planting and maintenance, in both the short- and long-term. |
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06/19/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
We spread mulch in one of the swales and watered the plants this weekend. |
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06/18/2021 |
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The volunteers of the Shepard St. greenspace met on Friday evening to discuss plans and goals for this summer. |
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06/17/2021 |
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The Oyster Point greenspace group held its first workday of the 2021 season on Thursday evening. The four volunteers pulled voluminous amounts of stickyweed from the area around the beach, remulched the planting bed behind the benches, and replanted zebra grass in front of the patio. |
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06/16/2021 |
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The Friends of Beaver Ponds Park completed their first workday of summer 2021 on Wednesday evening! After an introductory meeting, the numerous volunteers split up to work on weeding garden beds, preparing the children's garden for planting, pruning trees and shrubs along the walkway, fixing benches that had been broken since last summer, and unloading mulch from the truck. |
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06/12/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
The New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing was officially dedicated in a ceremony today, the result of years of determined work by Marlene, Celeste, Pamela, Winifred, and many, many others. Mayor Justin Elicker and Senator Richard Blumenthal were both present at the ceremony, along with the families of many past victims of gun violence in New Haven. After brief speeches by Marlene and the mayor, the names of all those killed by gun violence in New Haven, from the 1970s through 2021, were read. |
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06/12/2021 |
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The kids at Cherry Ann Park had a successful first workday on Saturday! They weeded the large planting bed by the Cherry Ann St. entrance, which had become overgrown since last summer. They also picked up trash that had accumulated in the bed. The evening ended with pizza and juice at Miss Connie's home. |
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06/05/2021 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
In anticipation of the dedication ceremony next Saturday, we planted several shrubs along the magnitude pathway on the west side of the park, and the moms planted red, yellow, and purple flowers in the triangle by the circular seating area. |
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10/24/2020 |
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A group of students from the Yale School of the Environment helped us remove invasive species, such as mugwort, knotweed, and multiflora rose, from Cherry Ann Park in New Haven. We also cleared leaves from the walking trail and used them to cover patches of soil exposed by removing the invasive plants, in hopes of arresting future growth of invasives and other weeds. |
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10/22/2020 |
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Tonight we spread a layer of mulch and watered the plants in the bed at the corner of Quinnipiac Avenue and Clifton Street, and we discussed plans for improvements to be made to the project next year when planting season returns. |
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10/17/2020 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
A group of students from the Yale School of the Environment volunteered with us to help remove invasive species, such as knotweed, privet, burning bush, and others, from along the West River and in the wooded area surrounding the Botanical Gardens of Healing. |
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10/10/2020 |
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New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence |
A group of students from the Yale School of the Environment volunteered with us to help remove invasive species, including knotweed, privet, burning bush, and garlic mustard, from along the West River and the wooded area near the Botanical Garden. After finishing the day's work we enjoyed a conversation about the meaning and purpose of ecological restoration in populated areas such as this one. |
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10/08/2020 |
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We planted a yucca, a juniper, and replanted several day lily bulbs in a plant box at the corner of Downing St. and Pine St. in Fair Haven, in addition to removing the weeds and trash that had filled the box before. |
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10/01/2020 |
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We planted yuccas and junipers, and replanted day lily bulbs, in street-side plant boxes on either side of the intersection of Grafton St. and Downing St. (near Chatham Square Park) in Fair Haven. Previously, the boxes had been filled mostly with weeds (and trash), but tonight's work greatly improved their appearance. |