Jon Johnson
URI Internship Year:
2020
Graduation Year:
2021
Degree:
MF
Jon is a rising second-year MF candidate at the Yale School of the Environment interested in urban and community forestry. His experience working in county parks has led him to question what it is about parks and other green spaces draw people in, what these spaces mean to different people, how to make them more accessible and inviting to more people, and how to accentuate the various positive social and ecological aspects of them. He aims to explore these questions further as a Community Greenspace intern and apply what he learns for the benefit of the residents of New Haven and their local communities.
Group
Bradley Street Pocket Park -Mulberry Jam
Greenspace Log
| Date | Category | Photos | Group | Summary | |
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08/22/2020 |
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Genese and a strong showing of the Blake Street Pocket Greenspace volunteers set out to thoroughly tidy up the space and transform the "roundabout" island into a lush and distinct attraction. They did just that, removing a tough autumn olive along the way, digging up and bordering the roundabout with many stones, and planting it up with spirea and hakonechloa grass. |
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08/22/2020 |
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Together we finished spreading topsoil along the berm and planted 12 perennials and another andromeda. |
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08/21/2020 |
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Thomas, Noy and I watered the young trees, deadheaded in the pollinator garden, and stabilized a wind-blown tree. |
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08/20/2020 |
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Ramish, Kevin and I weeded along the urban oasis, finished mulching plants and watered. |
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08/19/2020 |
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Steve, Murray and I had another lovely evening stewarding the younger trees in Bayview Park. Together we weeded the bases of many trees, made fresh mulch doughnuts for them and pounded in stakes to protect and mark them for the mowers. |
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08/19/2020 |
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4 yards of topsoil were spread along the DoT fenceline to bolster the soil berm and render it more fertile for new plantings. Following this substantial effort, 3 wintercreeper, 2 hakonechloa and 1 Japanese andromeda were planted along the berm within the fenced-in area. |
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08/18/2020 |
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Frank, Clara, Dolores, Pat, Susan and Stephanie removed the dead tulip tree in front of the Ranger Station, and then planted a replacement tree, a Kentucky coffee tree. |
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08/15/2020 |
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The group got together to plant some fresh Russian sage and dahlia in fresh topsoil which they began to spread. |
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08/14/2020 |
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Thomas, Noy and I watered the young trees, picked up litter and needles around memorial trees, and helped straighten a tree blown half sideways by the storm. |
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08/13/2020 |
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Kevin, David and I spread mulch around the bases of the remaining trees and shrubs, pulled bindweed, watered and installed wire guards around the bases of three trees which had been damaged, perhaps by muskrats. |
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08/12/2020 |
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Steve, Murray and I planted 3 loriope, 1 zebra grass, and mulched extensively around the beachfront plants. We also removed just about the last of the mugwort there....at least for now. |
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08/12/2020 |
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Pat, Clara, Rebecca and Muffy tidied the gardens by the ranger station, and planted phlox & Joe Pye Weed in the butterfly garden at the Mid Bridge, using compost & topsoil supplied by URI and mulch supplied by the city, did some watering, picked up 10 buckets of garbage by the Whalley Ave bus stop and cleaned garbage along some of the hiking trails. |
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08/11/2020 |
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At the MidBridge, Pat, Clara, and Stephanie planted two Joe Pye weed and three purple agastache in the area behind where the daffodils are planted. Rebecca watered trees and small plants and cut knotweed. Rachel, Clara and Pat continued weeding. Rebecca also watered the black gum tree at the dog park. Frank and Muffy continued planting willow sprouts that Frank has gotten to root this summer. There are 10 in all planted on both banks of the river south of the Mid Bridge. They are protected by tomato cages. |
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08/07/2020 |
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Tom, Noy and I met and spoke about objectives for the park during the remaining weeks of this season as we weeded the pollinator garden. |
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08/06/2020 |
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J.R., Alex and I watered and spread mulch doughnuts around the bases of the young trees. |
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08/05/2020 |
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Murray, Steve and I transplanted 3 montauk/nippon daisies, putting them behind the benches to prevent foot traffic there and provide more central beauty to the beach space. We also weeded extensively in this area and laid down about one yard of mulch total, including around the 5 newly-planted hostas by the tree on the western end of the space. |
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08/01/2020 |
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The group gathered together to plant 6 beautiful perennials and spread topsoil, compost and mulch across the garden beds. |
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07/30/2020 |
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J.R. and the crew weathered the rain and sheltered through the passing squall to fight back the bindweed and knotweed threatening the urban oasis, especially the various shrubs and perennials there. We also extended the hose chain for easier watering across the entire length of the urban oasis, and made headway in identifying several unknown plants on the site. |
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07/29/2020 |
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Murray, Steve and I weeded intensively by the shore, amassing pile upon pile of uprooted mugwort, mostly. We also mulched a bit of the garden behind the benches and discussed strategic planting options to deter foot traffic there. |
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07/28/2020 |
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Pat, Clara, Rebecca and Jon watered thirsty plants and trees. We did more trimming around the nine-bark garden, and cut back a lot of invasive knotweed and multiflora along the Archery Trail. We also freed several native trees from strangling vines. Also, each week Sandra and Karl have been giving 25 gallons of water to 10 trees. |
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07/21/2020 |
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Just Clara, Pat & Rebecca braved the heat on Tuesday. But they were productive! Clara cleaned the upper park/playground area and did some weeding in the Ranger Station gardens, then joined Pat & Rebecca at Mid-Bridge, where they watered trees and butterfly bushes (also watered the small tree by the boulders on the way), weeded and mulched at the daffodil garden, trimmed bushes to get some more light for the raspberries, and cleared more mugwort & knotweed from “Frank’s” Trail. One neat thing is that the area of Frank’s Trail where volunteers have been consistently cutting back what had become a three-species “desert” of invasive knotweed, mugwort & garlic mustard; now that trio has been consistently beaten back, a whole bunch of native species are starting to recover. |
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07/14/2020 |
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Clara, Delores, Pat, Susan and Stephanie tidied up the garden at Whalley and West Rock and cleared brush from along the sidewalk on West Rock near the parking lot. Frank, Rebecca and Rachel worked at the Mid Bridge area, preparing the new butterfly garden by laying down new top soil and pulling up mugwort. They also continued the on-going efforts to quell the knotweed there. Miriam picked up trash at both sites. |
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07/07/2020 |
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Frank, Margaret , Pat and Rachel worked removed knotweed at the Mid Bridge area, weeded around the young trees and groomed the area generally. Clara, Stephanie, Dolores and Rebecca took out porcelain berry, wisteria and multiflora rose at the Urban Oasis, restoring visibility to the native woody plants there. Miriam sojourned from site to site removing litter. |
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07/02/2020 |
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Genese and the folks at the Blake Street Pocket Park rang in their third season last Friday with a bang and great creativity as they not only weeded and watered their beautiful neighborhood space, but also put the finishing touches on their brand-new food pantry! And there soon will be more where that came from! Take that, COVID-19! |
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06/30/2020 |
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Three groups set out to tackle the Friends of Edgewood Park's weekly objectives for this week on Tuesday morning. One group at the Duck Pond at the Chapel Street bridge spent the morning removing Japanese knotweed and mugwort; a second added wood chips to the low lying part of the rhododendron trail near the Edgewood Avenue bridge; a third spruced up the garden at Whalley and West Rock. There was great turnout! |
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06/23/2020 |
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Clara and Stephanie mulched the new trees on the promenade, Pat and Dolores weeded the gardens near Sundial Sprinkler, and Frank cleared knot weed from around trees along road going to Duck Pond. Rebecca cut back overgrowth at the stairs to the basketball court. |