2019 Report for Mill River Trail

Year

2019

Number of volunteers

8

Total volunteer hours

44

Number of events

11

Number of trees planted

4

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blackgum (x1); red maple (x1); eastern red cedar (x1); American linden (x1)

Number of shrubs planted

22

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bayberry (x10); sweetgale (x6); buttonbush (x4); New Jersey tea (x1); holly (x1)

Number of perennials planted

10

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beebalm (x4); coneflower (x2); liatris (x4)

Yards compost spread

3.00

Yards mulch spread

1.50

Summary

The Mill River Trail group worked consistently and successfully in their fourth year as a Community Greenspace group with URI. The group’s efforts are helping to restore the riparian ecosystem that likely would have thrived along Mill River before industrialization, while creating a valuable route for people to travel on foot or bicycle between East Rock and Fair Haven. The group works with a variety of stakeholders, including the New Haven City Plan Department, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture, and surrounding businesses such as Grand Paint and Radiall. Early in the season, the group focused on removing Japanese knotweed that had overgrown some parts of the riverbank since last year. With tremendous help from Eliza Valk (landscape architect/designer with Reed Hilderbrand until she resigned in July) and a paid crew of Common Ground High School students who worked for URI this summer, the group successfully planted four trees, 22 shrubs, and 10 perennials to expand the Mill River Trail Urban Oasis. The group added pine bark mulch to new plantings, in addition to watering them and older ones as much as possible each week. The group also installed an official Urban Oasis sign, which helped mark the trail as a sanctuary for humans and other species alike.

Other activity

N/A