Spencer is a rising junior at Yale College and a physicist-turned-environmentalist. He is majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences with a concentration in Environmental and Energy Geoscience, and he's aiming for a certificate in Climate Change Science and Solutions. He is passionate about environmental justice, geography, climate change, and land use change, which are areas where he can use physical science to impact social causes. He's done research in everything from telescope calibration to climate modeling! He is beyond excited to be working in New Haven this summer and to be learning on the ground from his peers and community. In his spare time, he enjoys playing music, drinking coffee, spending time outdoors, and making all things tie-dye.
We worked hard to get the site ready for the kids' space in back of the lot! We picked up the rest of the trash and put down enough woodchips to cover the final areas.
For the last workday of the Friends of Kimberly Fields this summer, we mulched the rest of the curb strip we planted last week and did some weeding in the front beds of the lot!
We turfed out a very large area of milkweed between the beds we planted last week in the front curb strip, forming one continuous weed-free bed! We then planted 18!! perennials in the center area, forming a beautiful community garden in front of the Kimberly Fields lot.
The Friends of Beaver Ponds worked hard for their last workday of the summer! They planted in the triangle garden and put down all the rest of the mulch that had piled up throughout the summer.
This was a big block party to get the community together and steward Lewis St Park! The community planted several perennials and shrubs, put down a lot of mulch, and then had some fun with Cyril the Sorcerer (AKA the Merlin of environmental magic)!
The East Edge team planted a Joe Pye weed in the Norton bed and two spireas in the Ellsworth bed generously donated by former neighbors! Luckily, they just beat out the evening downpour too!
We turfed and planted another 15 perennials around the Hawthorn tree in front of the lot! We then mulched the beds we worked on this week and last week. The two beds in front now form a lovely pair!
We planted lots in the children's garden and several perennials near the triangle garden! Besides that we watered, picked up trash, and overall gave even more love to the already incredibly loved Beaver Ponds Park!
FoBPP had another great workday! We worked in the children's garden, the stone sign garden, and the pondside garden. We weeded, picked up trash, planted perennials, mulched, and watered!
We turfed around the serviceberry tree the Friends of Kimberly Fields planted last year, and then we planted a whopping 15 perennials! We hope that we can combine this to form one big beautiful bed in the curb strip stretching across the whole front of the lot!
After weeding the Stone Sign garden last week, we were able to plant 12 perennials and mulch almost the entire bed! We also weeded almost half of the pondside garden in preparation for planting next week and pruned some of the largest branches overshadowing a beautiful flame azalea.
Started off the summer strong by starting to clean up the back area! We did trash cleanup and then starting laying down topsoil to even out the ground on the site!
For the first big workday of the season with URI, the Friends of Beaver Ponds Park did fantastic work weeding the Stone Sign garden to prepare for planting throughout the summer. We also were able to get a good amount of mulch in the park!
We did a lot of good work cleaning up leaves on most of the beds! Cindy and Jerri worked very hard this week and it’s already showing in how spiffy the site looks.
We learned the appropriate precautions for wildfire smoke: it's helpful to wear a mask and for those at risk to stay home. With this in mind, it was a soft start to the season, but we pruned and cleared out of invasives. The pond is visible from the path, the trees are free to breathe, and it's comfortable to sit on the bench!