Lions Club Pitches In To Help Elm Trees Make A Comeback In Newtown

By Shannon Hicks

Newtown Lions Club has done projects that benefit residents in and around Newtown for more than 60 years. Through raffles — perhaps best known, The Great Pootatuck Duck Race and the annual Mustang raffle — and other fundraising, the club raises thousands of dollars each year that it turns around and uses for stewardship and donations to countless regional groups.

While the club and its members never personally benefit from any of the money raised, occasionally the Lions spend some of the money to cover the cost of a club project. The latest example of this is The American Elm Trees Project, which the club has underwritten. By summer, a few dozen new disease-resistant elms will be planted around town thanks to the new undertaking by the service club.

Newtown Lions Club has responded to a challenge issued last year by Lions Club International President Wing-Kun Tam, who has encouraged Lions to plant a million trees around the world. Aptly titled The Million Tree Planting Campaign, the project was officially launched in July 2011 when more than 800 seedlings were planted in one day at the Lions Club International (LCI) Convention.

Another group went even bigger the following month, when a team in South India planted 3.4 million trees, putting themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records… and setting the bar just a tad high for the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, the Newtown Lions have picked up shovels and buckets and have arranged for 20 American elm trees to be delivered from a tree farm in Georgia. Gary Storms, who is coordinating the project for the local club, is hoping the tree project becomes an annual event for Newtown.

The Newtown Lions began discussing the Million Tree Planting Campaign around November, Mr Storms said, and by January he had been appointed leader of the local project. Mr Storms is a member of the Lions Club’s Environmental Committee. Its chairman is Gordon Williams, and fellow members include George Arfaras, Doug Body, Frank Gardner, Ed Miklaszewski, and Lincoln Sander.

“We started talking about doing these two-foot, bare root sapling things that you can buy for $2 each,” Mr Storms said this week. “There are about half a dozen species available through Lions Club International, which is nice if you want to hand them out and involve school children.

“But very few of those trees actually end up succeeding, and I didn’t feel very good about that,” he continued. “So I did some research on the Internet and found out about these elm trees.

“Elms are pretty depleted across the country right now, and I read that there were some new ones — disease resistant — that have come about,” he said.

The club went with Princeton American elms (Ulmus americana “Princeton”) because of their resistance to disease. The trees have a number of very favorable characteristics, in fact.

For one thing, after millions of native North American elms have died from Dutch elm disease (DED), which has had a devastating impact on the urban landscape of North America, the Princeton American elm lives on, DED Resistant.

The tree also has a number of favorable landscaping traits, including an upright vase shape and arching overhead canopy, with a butter yellow fall color. Princeton American elms are salt, wind, ice, and wet site tolerant, they transplant well, they perform well in harsh cold and heat conditions and, should the need arise in Newtown, they do transplant well.

The tree was reportedly chosen by USDA National Arboretum to line Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, and was also selected by the National Park System as the preferred tree to plant back into park settings.

Newtown Lions Club worked with Sharp Top Trees, a tree farm in Georgia that has been offering a buy-one, get-one program for its Princeton American elms. When the club ordered ten trees, therefore, it meant the town would receive 20 new plantings. The Lions underwrote the cost of the trees and delivery, and then invited local groups and organizations to reimburse the club for part of the cost of the trees.

Newtown Forest Association has purchased six trees, which will be planted within NFA’s Blackman Preserve along Mt Pleasant Road. Newtown Village Cemetery Association has ordered four for Ram Pasture, and Newtown Historical Society has ordered one for The Matthew Curtiss House, replacing a tree that was lost during one of last year’s storms.

The Parks & Recreation Commission voted during its March 13 meeting to cover the cost of the nine remaining trees ordered by the Lions.

“We are pleased with the fact that we can contribute to this worthy project, and we can spend a few dollars to help reintroduce a tree that had been struggling for a few years in Newtown, and particularly into Newtown parks,” Parks & Recreation Commission Chairman Ed Marks said. “We felt it was a good investment.”

In addition, the Parks & Rec Department is going to develop a schedule for planting all 20 of the trees, Mr Storms said. Parks & Rec Parks Director Carl Samuelson has offered, according to Mr Storms, to also provide the necessary planting materials.

Lions Club President Ray Keegan was able to arrange a donation from Valley Green Inc, of Holyoke, Mass., of a blend of organic fertilizer and mycorrhiza fungi (M-Roots). which will also help with the plantings and enhance the changes for success for the trees.

Lions will then be responsible for their maintenance.

Princeton American elms grow three to six feet each year, so Mr Storms estimates it will take 10–15 years for the Newtown trees to reach their full 70-foot maturity.

Mr Storms is hoping that the project takes root.

“We may not always get the same kind of deal, and there are may be other types of trees we may be able to get,” he said, “but planting trees would be an important long-term project.”

The Million Tree Planting Campaign has been an overwhelming success. As of March 28, LCI’s website was reporting 7,453,153 trees had been planted around the world.