David McCarthy
URI Internship Year:
2018
Graduation Year:
2018
Degree:
MEM
David McCarthy is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is an interdisciplinary thinker that focused his studies on forestry, policy, philosophy, resilience, systems thinking, climate change, and communications. David is a lifelong Connecticut resident that's resided in New Haven since 2008. Dedicated to serving vulnerable populations, prior to his arrival at Yale he spent a decade working in the human services field. More specifically, he worked to alleviate poverty within Connecticut’s homeless population. He remains active and engaged with several environmental nonprofits in New Haven, including the New Haven Land Trust, New Haven Farms, Friends of East Rock Park, and Save The Sound.
David firmly believes in Urban Resources Initiative’s mission, as well as the science behind taking a community approach to environmental restoration and stewardship. He is excited to engage more with New Haven's communities, and help some of them to take back their neighborhoods through environmental stewardship. David is excited to utilize the Urban Forester’s toolbox to build social capital and increase community capacity in New Haven.
Group
Chatham Square Neighborhood Association
Greenspace Log
| Date | Category | Photos | Group | Summary | |
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08/07/2018 |
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This was the final workday for this new Greenspace group. To wrap up the season, they planted an Elm tree in Elm City, to reflect their environmental commitment to the New Haven community. |
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08/04/2018 |
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This was the final workday for the Castle St. Greenspace community group. Even though it rained, they prevailed with shovels in their hands to better their community. The group concluded with the creation of a curb strip perennial garden in front of Marilyn's home. |
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08/03/2018 |
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This was the final workday for 2018 Greenspace season. This group worked hard to plant a second crabapple tree across the street from Lewis St, Park but was unable to due to extreme root mass in the tree pit. However, the pit was previously overgrown with weeds, so the group decided to weed and mulch the space. Their plan is to have the city grind up the roots and have Greenskills plant the tree in the fall. |
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08/02/2018 |
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It was the final workday for the Friends of Quinnipiac River Greenspace workgroup. They celebrated by hosting a potluck right on the water. There were children playing, stories being shared and plenty of food brought by the community, for the community. What a fantastic way to say goodbye. |
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08/01/2018 |
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Today was the final working day for the Orchard St. Greenspace group, and they worked hard. The group had been prepping and planning for a new garden toward the rear of their once vacant lot. In previous weeks, they wheelbarrowed three cubic yards of topsoil to the back of the lot to create the raised bed. Today, they brought the garden to life by planting twenty-four shrubs in the garden. Then, they toted three and a half cubic yards of mulch via wheelbarrow from the front to the rear of the lot. The work done today is a culmination of the thought, vision, and arranging that has taken place since May. It was their capstone project; and a great way to say goodbye. |
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07/31/2018 |
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They are a brand new Greenspace community group and their very first work day. The day was opened up with a round of introductions, an icebreaker, and a task rundown about how to successfully plant a tree. With great enthusiasm, they worked as a team to plant a Ginkgo tree on Clay St. trading tasks to make sure that everyone had a chance to take part in each step. This tree stood tall, not because it was, but because its community loves it. Quite quickly, they all started to develop a watering schedule to ensure it's never without H2O. |
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07/28/2018 |
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CSNA is a powerhouse of energy, community, and commitment to environmental stewardship. Through the rain, humidity, and sweat, this greenspace group muscled a crabapple tree into the earth in Lewis St. Park. It was a neighboorhood affair, and several children joined in to help. Smiles were everywhere as the tree was going into the ground, and everyone stood a little taller that day. |
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07/28/2018 |
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This Greenspace group is committed to rejuvenating their traffic-island garden. It's quite large which means a lot of weeding, mulching, and planting. This week, the group focused on the back side of the garden; removing trash, weeds and planting perennials. Next week, we will be planting a tree! |
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07/28/2018 |
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Today was the initial planning meeting for this brand new greenspace working group. They worked through a vision of how they want to reclaim the environment in their community and developed a plan to put it into action. |
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07/26/2018 |
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Another day: another tree. This tree was planted to memorialize a lost community member. |
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07/25/2018 |
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Talk about commitment! This greenspace group came out to beautify their park during a hot, muggy, sweaty and rainy evening. They worked across three of their gardens weeding, mulching, planting, and watering: High &Dry, The Berm, Pondside Pollinator garden. Pleasent conversations filled the air and smiles were everywhere. |
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07/25/2018 |
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Today, this powerhouse of energy finished moving three cubic yards across the lost, via wheelbarrow. The topsoil was used to build up the berm for the rear garden and layout the design for the garden. They are very excited to plant it up next week. |
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07/21/2018 |
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The Castle St. workgroup met to continue to beautify their traffic island. They mulched, weeded, watered and planted the area. It's looking great! |
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07/19/2018 |
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This week at the Q-River park, a tree was planted in memory of a lost community member. |
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07/18/2018 |
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Today, the Orchard St. Greenspace group planted a Butterfly Magnolia tree as a living memorial to their fearless leader, Lil' Mama. Then, they continued to prepare the area toward the rear of their lot for the capstone summer project: a new garden. |
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07/18/2018 |
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The weather could not be any more perfect for an evening in the park. The Beaver Ponds greenspace group spent this warm, breezy, and sunny evening weeding, mulching, planting, and watering their gardens. A new member from the community came out today, and they even had a few out of state visitors come to join in the fun. Last but not least, they had a special visotor this week; a new born! |
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07/13/2018 |
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This week, the CSNA greenspace group performed garden maintenance and added nine perennials around their park. It's been quite dry with the drought, so the group showerd all the parks plants with water. Last but not least, they took a moment at the end of our workday to look around and relish in their efforts. The looked around and realized just how much their weekly two hour workdays have added up; their work has continued to improve their community. |
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07/12/2018 |
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This week at the Quinnipiac river greenspace, their pollinator garden received a lot of love and care. The team worked hard to weed, mulch, plant, and water the garden. Some of the trees in the vicinity also received some pruning, fresh mulch, and water. The workday concluded with a trip to a nearby pizzeria for some community dining and socializing. |
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07/11/2018 |
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A very successful workday for the Friends of Beaver Ponds Greenspace group: weeding, mulching, pruning, planting, and trimming. We pruned up a few cedar trees near the edge of the park and extended a garden. Stay tuned, because we’re planning on planting an oak tree next Wednesday. |
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07/11/2018 |
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A very successful workday for the Orchard St. Greenspace group: weeding, mulching, pruning, planting, and trimming. We installed a trashcan and seeded a lawn in the front area of the lot. Stay tuned, because we’re planning on planting a Magnolia tree next Wednesday. |
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06/30/2018 |
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Today was the first workday for the Castle St. / Monroe St. Greenspace this summer. The group worked diligently on a hot and humid Saturday to weed and reclaim their traffic island. It had been overgrown with weeds and its edges tapered with soil and mulch from erosion. As we worked, neighbors came out to help us. We had almost double the number of volunteers for the last hour. As hot as it was and as hard as we worked, we still have a lot left to do. This group is a powerhouse of energy, and I do not doubt that we will have their greenspace cleaned up in no time! |
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06/30/2018 |
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It was another transformative day at Lewis St. park. This time around, the group decided to address the south-east corner, and turn a patch of tall grass into a corner garden. It was hot and humid, but the group triumphed through the weather to convert an unused space into a beautiful garden. |
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06/27/2018 |
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This week, the Friends of Beaver Ponds Greenspace group decided to extend their garden located at the entrance to the south pond to incorporates a few more of the large stones. In that space we weeded, removed invasive species, planted some perennials, and mulched. The woods on eastern slope currently contains older trees, with invasive species growing up underneath it. Presently, there are not many younger, native trees ready to take over the forest when the older trees age out. The group will be planting an oak tree and work to remove the invasive species to ensure the future canopy of the forested eastern slope, More to come on this development. |
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06/27/2018 |
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Today was a maintenance day for the Orchard St. Greenspace group. They invested time to take care of all the hard work that they've done by weeding and watering the park. |
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06/22/2018 |
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This group is charged with energy and full of passion for their park. They worked diligently to continue their freshly created garden bed along fence on the eastern side of the park down toward the south-east corner, with intensions of creating a raised flower bed at the end next week. It was also a fun day in the park. There was a lot of socializing, laughter was in the air, and the Pellegrinos brought pizza for the group to enjoy. |
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06/21/2018 |
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It was a very successful evening for CSNA, and a big turnout. We weeded and mulched inside their pollinator garden. Then, we did the same underneath one of the group’s memorial trees, all while planting three beautiful perennials around it. We are in the planning process of adding a few more perennials to the pollinator garden, planting another memorial tree, and installing two new benches overlooking the river. |
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06/20/2018 |
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Another successful maintenance and planting day for the Friends of Beaver Ponds Park. Their efforts have expanded away from their more front and center garden (located at the entrance to the south pond) and into other areas throughout the park. Thanks to one rock star volunteer, their pollinator garden now has at least one person dedicated to its maintenance. This community group is a powerhouse of effort, ideas, and aspirations. They’re planning thoroughly and working hard to combat the invasive species in their park, revive and replant native species, and plant more trees to ensure that a forest will be there in the future. |
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06/20/2018 |
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It was mulch day at Orchard Street. This community working group is a powerhouse of energy and drive. After clearing out all the brush last week, they decided to work on their garden beds. They focused their efforts on the front of their lot, and worked toward the back weeding and spreading much. This space has had so much TLC lately; it’s really starting to shine! |
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06/16/2018 |
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Today, CSNA transformed the far wall of the park by developing and planting a new bed. The area was overgrown with weeds and invasive species. Among the weeds were a few blue holly bushes that we were able to rescue from the weeds. We edged out a nice line to separate the garden bed from the grass. In it, we planted two new blue holly bushes and two new dogwood tatarian shrubs. Afterward, we dressed the beds with fresh much. The group was delighted with the result. |
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06/14/2018 |
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It was the Friends of Quinnipiac River Park’s first workday of the summer planting season. We distributed some flyers, reviewed summer goals for the park, and then got straight to work. The garden beds needed a lot of weeding, so we made sure to tackle that right away. We also gathered any litter we could find and safely discarded it. Last but not least, one of the group members lost her son a few years back and a memorial tree was planted in the park to honor him. Today, we installed a plaque at the base of the tree to memorialize it. Then, we pruned up the tree a bit and spread some mulch around it. They are a very ambitious group with a big park. I look forward to helping them achieve their goals this planting season. |
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06/13/2018 |
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It was a great turnout today for the Friends of Beaver Ponds Park. They worked into the evening beautifying the garden beds located at the entrance to the south pond. |
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06/13/2018 |
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Today, the Orchard St. Greenspace group conquered all the fallen tree limbs. The group removed another entire truckload of limbs, branches, and brush. They also worked more on raking and weeding. We concluded our work with a group discussion for a significant planting in the back of the lot where we removed a lot of invasive species (garlic mustard and Japanese’s knotweed). The group has big plans! |
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06/08/2018 |
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Today was a highly productive workday for the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association at the Lewis Street Park. Last week, the group expressed concerns about soil erosion on a hill that’s behind a swing in the park. We assessed and decided that our intervention would be a prescription for more plants to help stabilize the soil and manage water runoff. This week, we planted ten shrubs along the slope and then dressed the area with two yards of mulch; that’s a lot of mulch! |
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06/08/2018 |
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It was the first meeting for the Cedar Hill Neighborhood Greenspace group. The group worked hard to clean up one of their three sites. With a lot of invasive, trash, and dumped debris, the team removed about six leaf bags of material from the site. |
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06/07/2018 |
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I met with Thomas, Burwell today, Greenspace group leader for the Friends of Quinnipiac River Park. He gave me a tour of the park and illustrated past accomplishments as well as present aspirations. I look forward to helping this community group achieve its environmental stewardship and restoration goals this summer. |
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06/06/2018 |
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The Beaver Ponds Summer Greenspace group met for an evening workday today. First on the list was a discussion about the Killdeer that nested on the Javelin Field, a species protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. The group has set up cones and rope to make the nest more visible and will be looking for additional support from the Audubon Society. Next, the group briefly discussed a plan for their workday and got right to work. The evening was packed full of weeding, mulching, and planting a little over a dozen in bloom perennials in the garden at the corner of Fournier and Crescent St. It was a very successful workday. |
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06/06/2018 |
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Today was another major cleanup day for the Orchard Street Community Greenspace. This group worked strenuously to rake and bag about 14 leaf bags. They also removed a field of invasive species: garlic mustard, poison ivy, Japanese knotweed. The group wrapped up its day by planting three bee balms bushes in the front edge of their garden. |
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06/01/2018 |
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The Chatham Square Neighborhood Association’s gathered for its initial planning day for the 2018 Greenspace season. We met in the park they steward at the corner of Front St. and Lewis St. in Fair Haven. Kids played on the playground and toddlers watched from their strollers as CSNA shared its goals and ideas to carry out over the summer. The Chatham Square Neighborhood Association cares deeply about its greenspace, and are excited to get the season going. I am looking forward to supporting this group and helping them achieve their goals. “This park is used more because of the work that we do.” — Carlos Galo |
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05/30/2018 |
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It was Orchard St.’s first day into the Greenspace 2018 season, and they are off to a great start. The team reviewed their aspirations and goals to work toward over the summer, then got to work without haste. Two very large limbs had fallen during a recent storm, and they completely blocked the entrance to their Greenspace. The stewards of Orchard St. Greenspace worked diligently to cut up and clear the tree limbs. This group has a lot of ambition and dedicated community members. I am looking forward to supporting this group and helping them achieve their goals. |
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05/30/2018 |
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This was Beaver Ponds first planning day for Friends of Beaver Ponds Park. We kicked off the 2018 Greenspace season with a round of introductions and a group discussion about the park. This team is a powerhouse of environmental stewardship. They care for a very large park that contains wetlands, an urban oasis, walking trails, pollinator garden, and two ponds stocked with game fish. They have big goals They have a lot of ambition and dedicated community members. I am looking forward to supporting this group and helping them achieve their goals. |