HARDWICK – Small trees have recently been popping up throughout Hardwick’s Designated Downtown area over the last several weeks, where wooden stakes had been marking places for them throughout much of the summer.
A $33,487 Vermont Community Tree Planting Grant (CTPG) for the Trees for Downtown Hardwick project was secured by the Hardwick Downtown Partnership (HDP). Under the grant, Ecotone Landscapes & Tree Care co-owner and Hardwick Select Board Vice-Chair Ceilidh Galloway-Kane has been working with GMTCC intern Owen Skorstad to plant 30 trees at town buildings, businesses, nonprofits and in private yards.
Fourteen of the trees will be on municipal property and the other 16 on privately-owned parcels, said Tracy Martin.
photo by Paul Fixx
Hardwick Tree Warden Geoff Fehrs, co-owner of Ecotone, helped to select appropriate trees for each location and will monitor the health of the trees for the first year. A variety of trees were planted, said Fehrs, who said Hardwick’s downtown is more of an urban environment for trees. River birch groupings were planted in three wetter areas, crabapple and serviceberry shrubs were sited where there wasn’t room for larger trees, and two oaks, a sycamore and larch were selected where there was room for them to grow.
Claudia Gohl said she appreciated the program to plant trees in town. She received two of them, one behind the Positive Pie building and a serviceberry cluster in front of a S. Main St. property, to replace a crabapple she recently removed.
Gohl said she was glad the Downtown Partnership did the project because there are so many trees outside town, people don’t realize how important they are in town. Trees on her property keep the ground underneath them at least ten degrees cooler in the summer heat, making the area safer for pets and what’s in parked cars, she said.
The organization’s “work plan for 2024 . . . identified a goal to ‘collaborate with the Hardwick Conservation Commission and look for funding to establish a program to plant trees on Main, Mill, and Wolcott streets,’” said Cornish. Later, they expanded the “vision to include all of the streets within the bounds of the Designated Downtown.
“With support from the Hardwick Conservation Commission, we applied for and were awarded a CTPG (a joint program of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, Urban & Community Forestry Program and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission).”
The CTPG program recognizes the many benefits that have been shown to accrue to communities when tree cover is expanded. The Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program explains that planting trees “improves air quality, mitigates stormwater, provides shade, creates wildlife habitat, increases property value and improves public health and wellbeing.”
“Funders for the Trees for Downtown Hardwick project were especially pleased with the group’s ‘Adopt-a-Tree’ concept,” said Cornish.
The Partnership invited both individual and business property owners in Hardwick’s Designated Downtown to receive trees as part of the larger project. The trees, planted near streets, sidewalks and other public spaces, will benefit the community as a whole, she said.
Agreements with each property owner offer a three-year warranty, noting, “the tree may not be removed, pruned or otherwise altered without permission from the Hardwick Tree Warden during that time.” Landowners will be responsible for the trees after that.
The Hardwick Conservation Commission contributed to the project by collecting soil samples at each of the planting locations. Those samples were sent to a lab at UVM to determine the suitability of each site, and the potential needs of the trees going forward.
“The HDP used a competitive bid process to procure the services of a professional landscaping firm, but struggled to find an available contractor, finally contracting with family-owned Ecotone,” said Cornish.
Signs accompanying some of the trees indicate, “This new tree was planted by the HDP & Hardwick Conservation Commission with support from a CTPG funded through the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission with Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation.
“The success of the Trees for Downtown Hardwick project could just be the start for our community. If another organization is interested in pursuing a Trees for Hardwick Neighborhoods effort, the HDP would be thrilled to offer up all that the board has learned through this process,” said Cornish.
The HDP is a private non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. It was established in December of 2022 as part of a years-long effort to have Hardwick’s historic business district designated as part of the Vermont Downtown Program. In January of 2023, Hardwick’s downtown was granted that status. The HDP mission is to provide leadership to support the economic, social, cultural and recreational vitality of downtown Hardwick.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
