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Urban Forest
Havenwoods is a very disturbed
piece of land. Almost every square foot has been
plowed, built on, landfilled, or paved. Read on to
find out about the:
Returning
forest
Before European settlement,
Havenwoods was a lowland forest filled with maple,
oak, ash, basswood, hickory, beech, and elm trees.
Settlers cleared and drained the land. For the next
120 years, Havenwoods was not a woods.
When the last people moved off
the land in about 1970, there were very few areas
with trees:
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Norway
Woods (white oval on map) Near
the prison stood stately Norway maples, planted in the early 1900s.
Today, these trees are showing their age as they
lose large branches.
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Orchards (red ovals on
map) There were two orchards probably
planted in the 20s or 30s. The apple trees have aged. Today, you are
lucky if you find one of the apples before the deer
and raccoons eat them all.
-
South Woods (yellow oval
on map) On the
south end of the property, there was a small grove of
trees along Intermittent Creek.
This "woods" was probably a pasture during the
House of Correction days. When the Army took over
the land, it probably became a picnic area with mowed
grass. In 1983, it was a grassy woodlot without a
single wildflower. Volunteers rescued plants from
construction sites to plant under the trees. Today,
those wildflowers compete with invasive garlic
mustard and buckthorn. With the help of staff and volunteers,
they will continue to grow and flower each spring.
The South
Woods in 1983. Volunteers planted mayapple,
jack-in-the-pulpit, wood anemone, and many other
spring wildflowers on a rainy May day.
The South
Woods in spring 2008! Note: many of the small
seedlings surrounding these violets are garlic
mustard!
School children helped nature
reclaim this land by planting thousands of trees.
This picture, from 1986, shows the area between the
Norway Woods and Hopkins Street (white oval on map).
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Conifer planting
Every
state forest needs a pine plantation! The staff
hoped that having a pine plantation at Havenwoods
would give visitors a unique experience - a chance
to be surrounded by evergreens without having to
travel to the northern part of the state.
From planting day until
present, the pine and spruce trees in this
plantation have been a challenge. The soil was
compacted, so we loosened it. It was full of clay, so
we added sulfur. The deer ate the new growth, so we
fenced some of the trees. The white pines suffered
from the poor air quality, so we tried spruce. Many
of the trees didn't survive, so volunteers replanted
them. The weeds tried to strangle the trees, so
staff and volunteers mowed and weed-whacked.
Today, there are a few
places in the area that are beginning to feel like a
conifer forest. Come and enjoy it, but watch out for
the wild parsnip.
We're still working on that one!
Conifer plantation in 1996.
Conifer plantation in 2008.
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Urban Arboretum
The first tree was planted
in the Urban Arboretum in 1985 in honor of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. by the
Federal Employees Black History Month Committee. Each tree planted in
the arboretum was chosen for its ability to survive
and thrive in an urban environment. That means
these trees are resistant to salt, tolerant of higher urban
temperatures, able to grow in spite of ozone and
other air pollutants, resistant to diseases and
pests, and tolerant of compacted soil, drought, and
poor drainage.
By 1990, the arboretum
was well-populated with small trees.
Today, the trees have
grown to the point that they provide a pleasing
welcome mat for visitors and shade for picnickers.
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