From left to right: Dr. William J. Cleary, President MVHS Board of Directors; Bill Lawson, MVHS Executive Director; Bob Calcagni, MVHS Board of Directors; Larry Tooker, Men’s Garden Club of Youngstown.
Members of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society’s Board of Directors along with members of the Men’s Garden Club of Youngstown were on hand at The Arms Family Museum, this afternoon for the planting of two Princeton variety Elm trees. These Elm trees are the first two that the Garden Club will be planting in the City of Youngstown to reintroduce the species. Installation of the two trees was donated in-kind by Dellaquadri Landscaping.
The American Elm has been a part of American history since the founding of our country. This uniquely American tree followed the pioneers with westward expansion, and almost every city or town eventually had an Elm Street. In fact, American Elms are the reason there are more Elm Streets than Main Streets. With the demise of the American Elm due to Dutch Elm disease, the memories of the Elm Streets are fading. But new varieties of American Elms have been selected in the past 10 years that are tolerant and are just coming on the market.
The Men’s Garden Club of Youngstown has recently adopted the American Elm tree as the focus of a new project and part of its educational mission. A committee has been formed with the purpose of promoting awareness of the “new” American Elm in the Mahoning Valley. Specifically, the goals of this project are:
- Share the history of this uniquely American tree.
- Promote awareness of the new disease tolerant Elm trees.
- Encourage individuals to include the Elm tree in their landscape plans.
- Encourage communities to plant Elm trees in their parks and public spaces
- Develop an Elm grove in Mill Creek Park as a study collection.
To date, MGCY has planted American Elms in Boardman, Austintown, Liberty, Sharon, and Canfield. The Club continues to seek communities willing to maintain an American Elm in a public location. Funding for this phase of the project is covered by a MGCY memorial fund. It is an ongoing, long term commitment by the Club to have American Elms in the six counties in the Mahoning Valley – Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark, and Trumbull County and Lawrence and Mercer in Pennsylvania.
As the new real trees were being planted, volunteers Jerry Nunziato and Jerry George were busy “planting” our Christmas trees…
And, our Linden tree just looks so lovely it needed to be included too…
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