Chris is most at home when wandering the forests and sharing the wonders of these places with others. Chris graduated from Warren Wilson College with a degree in Environmental Education. After graduating, he served as a founding member of an expeditionary learning public charter school and taught high school courses in Environmental Science & Adventure Leadership in Asheville, NC . He also instructed wilderness expeditions for 7 years with the North Carolina Outward Bound School.
Chris is currently a Master's of Forestry student at the Yale School of the Environment. He is interested in the wild untapped possibilities in our urban, suburban, & rural landscapes to combine urban forestry, agroforestry, and natural forest regeneration techniques to create food forests and deepen the relationships of people with the land.
The Shepard & Huntington volunteers installed new signs on the fence reminding park users to not throw trash in the park. New brick was also laid along the plant beds and some of the shrubs were pruned.
It is also exciting to announce that a picnic table was added to the site to provide community members a place to sit in the greenspace!
The Mariposas del Mundo volunteers planted a redbud tree along the creek, spread stone dust to make pathways, and installed a greenspace sign. The volunteers continue to put in the hard stewardship work of watering all the new trees with buckets of water. All their hard work is transforming this site into a an amazingly diverse habitat for wildlife.
The Common Ground students planted a Hornbeam tree in the Urban Oasis!
Friends of Dover Beach finished mulching the Urban Oasis and also planted 3 new perennials at the Middletown rd. corner butterfly garden.
Fairmont Park volunteers planted 3 White Pine trees today as part of the forest restoration plan. The group got an incredible amount of work done in a short time.
The Shephard and Huntington volunteers dug in a brick border around part of the greenspace while also weeding a large portion of the stone dust path. They also put in some finishing touches on planting for the year by adding 2 more perennials.
The Orchard st. volunteers spread a large amount new gravel throughout their greenspace while also putting a few finishing touches on planting by adding 2 more perennials to the neighborhood.
Friends of East Rock added 9 plants to the caterpillar--> butterfly portion of the garden and 9 forest understory plants beneath the oak/pine/birch canopy.
Friends of East Rock added 9 plants to the caterpillar--> butterfly portion of the garden and 9 forest understory plants beneath the oak/pine/birch canopy.
Friends of Dover Beach continued weeding the urban oasis and began adding mulch to the area. Students from Common Ground have been an incredible help by weeding a large portion of the Urban Oasis for us!
The Orchard St. volunteers planted a Hosta in each of the 9 flower pots place in front of neighborhood houses on the curb strip. A few trees were also pruned along the street to allow for more clearance on the sidewalk.
Friends of East Rock planted 20 perennials including groups of butterfly weed/New England Aster and Black Eyed Susan/Purple Coneflower. These are the first 2 groupings of plants that will be leveraged as educational waystations along the trail, teaching visitors about the integral connections between plants and wildlife.
Planted the first members of the new native species education garden after weeks of envisioning and planning.
1 Witch Hazel tree and 3 Rhododendrons were planted by the Friends of East Rock.
Friends of East Rock participated in part 2 of visioning to decide upon the details of the future "Educational Native Species Garden"
The volunteers also spent time weeding the space in preparation of future plantings
Fairmont Park volunteers began weeding around the natural regeneration located near the stone steps. This included a large amount of bitternut hickory seedlings as well as some oaks, cherries, and a black walnut.
Friends of East Rock weeded around trees that were planted over the springtime and participated in their first visioning session to plan the new Educational Native Species Garden
Dover Beach Urban Oasis Volunteers installed brand new signs reminding park users to take the time to put their trash in trash cans. The signs look great!
The old grand stone staircase of the estate once situated on Fairmont Park was unearthed by volunteers over the offseason.
Today, native tree species seedlings around the staircase were identified for protection and invasive species were weeded out.
A plan was made to regenerate the forest around the staircase with the goals of increasing native species biodiversity and creating a beautiful entryway into the park's trails system.