Ethan Ross
URI Internship Year:
2018
Ethan is a rising sophomore in Yale College who is working toward a double major in environmental studies and economics. He graduated from Abington Heights High School in 2017, where he served as captain of the state Envirothon team for two years. Ethan is an avid runner who loves spending time outdoors in any capacity. For the past five years, Ethan has also worked as a local landscaper in Clarks Summit, PA. In the future, Ethan plans to concentrate his academic studies on localized conservation approaches and eventually start a career in the environmental mitigation field.
Ethan is excited to join URI's Greenspace team for the summer and directly affect environmental change in New Haven communities. Although he does not have professional experience in an environmental field, Ethan looks forward to learning more about urban forestry from URI staff, his fellow interns, and community members. He hopes that his summer with URI will allow him to learn more about the practical application of forestry tools, and the importance of environmental restoration and community building in an urban context.
Group
Truman Street Clean/Green Project
Lower State - High School In The Community
Greenspace Log
| Date | Category | Photos | Group | Summary | |
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08/04/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden met for the final meeting of the season in the rain on Saturday morning. The group weeded and mulched around the garden bed. |
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08/04/2018 |
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Cherry Ann Park met on Saturday morning under threat of rain to do some plantings in the front bed by the park sign. Mr. Mike and Deon helped to plant three yuccas in the shady area, while Miss Connie talked about the progress of the site. |
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08/03/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace Group concluded their successful season on Friday with a party for the neighborhood. The group started the evening with a little bit of work, but quickly traded in their work gloves for water balloons. The party was a fantastic way to end the season, and one particular URI intern had more fun in the water balloon fight than the kids did! |
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08/02/2018 |
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The Fort Hale Park Group met for the final planting session of the summer on Thursday evening. The group started its efforts by planting a bald cypress tree in the marsh area next to the naval base. The bald cypress was planted to reduce the reed population and to complement the dawn redwood tree on the opposite side of the marsh. Then, the group planted three eastern red cedar shrubs along the fence bordering the naval base. The eastern red cedars will succeed the Austrian pine trees in the coming years as the Austrian pines fall victim to disease. Finally, the group planted three red-twig dogwood shrubs around the dawn redwood tree that was planted last year. The dogwood shrubs will curtail the growth of the reeds around the redwood, hopefully providing the redwood with some space to grow. The group concluded the evening by thanking everyone for their efforts this summer. The Fort Hale Park Greenspace Group was an absolute pleasure to work with this year. |
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07/31/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Greenspace met on Tuesday evening to conclude the summer season with URI. Ms. Kelly, Kahlia, and Dominick successfully planted two hostas and two coral-bells in beds along the fence. The group also heavily mulched along the sides of the fence to suppress the weedy overgrowth. |
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07/31/2018 |
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The Bradley Street Group met on Tuesday evening to conclude its successful season with more shrub plantings in the streetscape. Mr. Smart rallied his neighbors one last time to plant three variegated dogwoods in the street bed, complementing the tremendous work already completed this season. |
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07/28/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden met on Saturday morning to weed and mulch around the front garden bed. |
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07/27/2018 |
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The Truman Street Group met on Friday evening to continue mulching and cleaning the bed along the side of the vacant lot. |
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07/24/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Greenspace met on Tuesday evening to complete its first planting session of the summer season. The group started by mulching the back of the vacant lot and prepping the planting area with water. Then, the group successfully planted a large hosta plant in the bed along the left side of the fence. The group will meet next week to finish the planting and conclude the summer season. |
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07/24/2018 |
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The Bradley Street Group met on Tuesday evening to complete its first planting of the summer season. The group successfully planted three ornamental grasses, three coral-bells, and one hydrangea in the streetscape. The group also mulched heavily around the plantings and finished by watering the perennials. |
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07/21/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden met on Saturday morning to plant one euonymus bush, one rose bush, and two spike speedwell in the garden bed. |
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07/19/2018 |
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Fort Hale Park Group met on Thursday evening to plant a swamp white oak in Pardee Seawall Park along Townsend Avenue. The group faced some struggles in digging the hole due to the presence of oyster shells in the soil, but the tree was successfully planted. The swamp white oak represents an ongoing project to replace the Norway Maple trees along Townsend Avenue, which have become brittle and weak with age. Next week, the group will finish out the planting season with a bald cypress tree in Fort Hale Park. |
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07/18/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace met on Wednesday evening to continue their efforts in cleaning along the left side of the vacant lot. The group started by shoveling and weeding out the overgrowth along the fence. Then, the group heavily mulched the weeded area and edged the bed. |
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07/14/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden met on Saturday morning to discuss future plantings in the bed. Ms. Bonito described the history of the greenspace, as well as the community's vision for the site. |
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07/12/2018 |
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The Fort Hale Park Group met on Thursday evening to plant low-growth sumac at Pardee Seawall Park. Amidst renewed energy from a new community member, the group successfully planted eight low-growth sumacs and one male winterberry on the north slope of Pardee Seawall. The group finished the day by extensively watering the new plantings and mulching around the bed. |
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07/11/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace continued their clean-up efforts on Wednesday evening following the July 4th break. The group weeded out the grasses along the left-side of the lot and put down 0.5 yards of pine mulch. The group also spent some time putting up a birdhouse on the central oak tree. |
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07/10/2018 |
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The Bradley Street Group met on Tuesday evening to continue their mulching and weeding efforts in the streetscape. |
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07/10/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Group met on Tuesday evening to finish mulching around the central bed and the back of the vacant lot. Ms. Kelly and Tahlia shoveled mulch from the pile into the bed and spread it evenly around the bushes and perennials. Then, Ms. Kelly and the group began pulling the weeds and grasses along the left side of the lot in the hope of planting along the left edge next week. The group was able to remove three full bags of weeds from the greenspace and spread another yard of mulch to suppress the weeds. |
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07/10/2018 |
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The Bradley Street Group met on Tuesday evening to continue their mulching and weeding efforts in the streetscape. |
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06/30/2018 |
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The Cherry Ann Park Greenspace met on Saturday morning to complete their largest workday of the season. The group, along with help from Will Tisdale and students from Common Ground High School, successfully planted two trees and four perennials. A pin oak tree was planted near the playground to replace another damaged oak tree, and an American Linden was planted next to the green water container. The children also succeeded in planting two geraniums and two foamflowers in the beds near the front of the park. |
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06/30/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden met on Saturday morning to plant three euonymus bushes, two Mexican hyssops, and one geranium bulb. |
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06/28/2018 |
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The Fort Hale Park Group met on Thursday evening to plant two eastern red cedars along the fence bordering the Fort Hale Marine Base. The gloomy weather could not keep the group away as the six-foot trees were planted and mulched. The eastern red cedars will succeed the Austrian pines, which are dying in Fort Hale Park due to disease. |
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06/28/2018 |
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The Lower State Street Group took a break from its Thursday workdays to do some canvassing with flyers in the local neighborhood. Ms. Jewell and the URI intern handed out approximately thirty flyers to businesses located near Innovation Park and discussed the group's vision for the site. |
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06/27/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace met on Wednesday evening to plant some perennials in the front bed. The group experienced a season-high in capacity and successfully planted nine liriope and five yarrows in the front of the greenspace. |
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06/26/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Group met on Tuesday evening to spread some mulch around the central bed in the vacant lot. Ms. Kelly and Carlos, a boy from the neighborhood, helped unload 0.5 yards of mulch from the truck and bring it to the central bed. Ms. Kelly then spread the mulch evenly with a rake while Carlos helped load the next wheelbarrow of mulch. The mulch covered roughly half of the central bed, so additional mulch will be dropped off later in the week to cover the rest of the bed. |
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06/26/2018 |
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The Bradley Street Greenspace Group met for the first time of the summer season on Tuesday evening. Mr. Smart discussed the group's goals for the summer, as well as the emeritus status of the group. The group successfully weeded and cleaned out the streetscape bed along Bradley Street, filling up nearly five leaf bags with weeds and overgrowth. |
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06/23/2018 |
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The Clifton Street Greenspace Group met on Saturday morning to continue their efforts in the river garden. The group successfully planted five coreopsis, five catmints, and one butterfly bush. |
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06/21/2018 |
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The Fort Hale Park Greenspace met on Thursday evening to transplant perennials from Fort Hale Park to Pardee Seawall Park. Due to upcoming parking lot construction at Fort Hale, the perennial bed near the sign to the park was set to be paved over. The group carefully removed the perennials and shrubs and transported them to the northern slope of Pardee Seawall Park. Then, the group cut back the Japanese knotweed and mulched around the newly planted perennials. |
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06/20/2018 |
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The Truman Street Group met on Wednesday evening to spread mulch around the central tree bed and begin clean-up on the beds near the front of the greenspace. The group worked diligently to spread 0.5 yards of mulch around the bed and rake out the front beds. |
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06/19/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Greenspace Group met on Tuesday evening to clear out the central beds and do some additional weeding around the vacant lot. Ms. Kelly started by raking out the leaves from underneath the bushes along the sides of the lot, which were then bagged and removed. Then, Ms. Kelly and the group weeded out the central bed and raked the leaves out from under the bush. Once again, the brush was bagged and removed from the greenspace. The group will meet again next week to mulch over the area and prevent the growth of any new weeds. |
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06/16/2018 |
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The Cherry Ann Park Group met on Saturday morning to perform general clean-up in the park. Although the group's numbers were slightly lower due to graduation, Miss Connie and the neighborhood children still weeded around the front sign and cleaned up trash in the front beds. |
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06/14/2018 |
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The Lower State Street Group met on Thursday afternoon to do some mulching and weeding in the beds closest to Chapel Street. Ms. Jewell helped weed out around the catmint and rose bushes in the front beds while the mulch was unloaded and spread around the plants. |
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06/13/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace met on Wednesday evening to officially begin the summer work season. With the help of Mr. Leyedra, the group weeded and spread 0.5 yards of topsoil around the central tree bed. The group also discussed their vision for the summer and concluded by weeding around the front beds. |
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06/12/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Greenspace met on Tuesday evening to plant two giant green arborvitaes in the back of the vacant lot. The arborvitaes will replace the cedar shrubs that were unable to survive the harsh winter, and provide a background to the vacant lot. Ms. Kelly watered the shrubs extensively while Tahlia mulched around the new plantings. |
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06/09/2018 |
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The Cherry Ann Park Group met on Saturday morning to spread some wood chips on the beds near the entrance to the park. Deon and Ivan helped to unload the wood chips from the truck, while the rest of the group took the wood chips from the wheelbarrow. The group also did some weeding along the front beds and finished by pulling weeds around the trees. |
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06/07/2018 |
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The Lower State Street Group met for the first work session of the summer on Friday afternoon. Ms. Jewell and the group worked in Innovation Park by weeding out the front beds. |
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06/07/2018 |
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The Fort Hale Park Greenspace Group met for the first time for the summer season on Thursday evening. The group stewarded the beds leading up to the Fort Hale outlook by weeding and spreading wood chips. The group also discussed their goals for the summer and a week-by-week schedule of the group's work. The group finished the evening by walking out onto the new fishing pier and looking over the bay. |
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06/05/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Group went door-to-door with flyers on Tuesday evening in hopes of increasing community participation at the greenspace. The group met several community members who expressed an interest in working at the greenspace and stated that they would come to a future meeting. |
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06/05/2018 |
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The Truman Street Greenspace Group began its summer work on Tuesday, June 5th with on-site planning and weeding. The group weeded the community garden beds while discussing their plans for the summer. Group leaders Ms. Leslie Radcliffe and Mr. Jose Leyedra charted out a course of action for the summer, which will begin next Wednesday with some weeding and mulching. |
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06/02/2018 |
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The Cherry Ann Park Greenspace Group met for their first workday of the summer season on Saturday morning. Miss Connie and the neighborhood children pulled some weeds by the garden and discussed their vision for the summer. The group then talked about the history of the park, as well as the progress of the greenspace. |
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06/01/2018 |
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The Lower State Street Greenspace began its summer work in Innovation Park on Friday, June 1st. The group pulled some weeds and discussed their shared goals for the summer. Moving forward, the group is excited to beautify the space and attract more visitors to Innovation Park! |
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05/30/2018 |
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The Clifton Street River Garden began its summer season and greenspace career with a well-attended evening of work. |
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05/30/2018 |
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The Shepard Street Greenspace Group met for the first time this summer on Wednesday, May 30th. The group discussed the status of last year's plantings and decided to plant a few bushes in the back of the lot. The group is hoping that the greenspace will attract more community members this summer through a possible book sharing program. Moving forward, the group will work to maintain the emeritus status of the lot through weeding the beds and planting a few new perennials. |