Greenwich Town Arboretum Awarded Level II Accreditation

From the Greenwich Tree Conservancy: The Greenwich Town Arboretum of Greenwich, CT has been awarded a Level II Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum, for achieving standards of professional practices deemed important for arboreta and botanic gardens. The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. The Greenwich Town Arboretum is also now recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.

During the past ten years the Greenwich Tree Conservancy has been working with the Town of Greenwich in a public/private partnership in the greening of our urban forest, planting over 3,100 trees on public land.

The roots of the Greenwich Town Arboretum began in, Bruce Park, located on 60 acres along the south side of Interstate 95. Greenwich’s oldest public park was established in 1908 through a bequest of Robert Moffat Bruce. The 125 acre Greenwich Town Arboretum began in 2017, by mapping, cataloging, and tagging our town trees in Bruce Park. When completed, the Arboretum will include: Bruce Park, Binney Park, Byram Park and the Montgomery Pinetum.

The Greenwich Town Arboretum is managed by the Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Parks and Trees and the Greenwich Tree Conservancy. The Greenwich Tree Conservancy is a non-profit 501(c)3.

• Bruce Spaman: Superintendent of Parks & Trees, Town Tree Warden
• Stephan Gospodinoff Jr: Deputy Town Tree Warden
• JoAnn Messina: Executive Director of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy
• Lisa Beebe: Arboretum Curator

Mission and history of the arboretum

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy’s (GTC) mission is to protect and enhance our Arboretum, located throughout the Town of Greenwich, as a living museum of trees and plants and as a treasured community asset for current and future generations. Open and free to the public, our Arboretum collections have specimens from our native ecosystems and species representing important botanical diversity from around the world. The GTC promotes a deeper knowledge of trees and their value to our quality of life through public events, educational programs for both children and adults and through horticultural research. Our web presence provides information and resources for scientists, students and the interested public.

The GTC’s Executive Director, JoAnn Messina has stated: “Becoming an Internationally Accredited Arboretum Level II shines a light on the environmental assets that the Town of Greenwich has and the historic significance of our community forest which includes both public and private land. Greenwich has over 100 trees listed in the Connecticut Notable Tree Project which includes CT’s largest and most historic trees. With this richness of historic forest resources the GTC encourages our community to preserve our natural assets, practice stewardship of resources and to plant trees that future generations can enjoy.”

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy was founded in January 2007 because of a shared concern that there is insufficient recognition of the importance of trees in enhancing our community, our health and our quality of life. Because they are part of our everyday existence, it’s easy to overlook the many benefits that trees provide:

Trees are silently and constantly at work cleaning our air, filtering our water, preventing soil erosion, protecting us from winds and shading us in the summer.

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy is a public-private partnership with the Town of Greenwich. We do many things, such as planting trees, helping to locate and revitalize our town’s heritage trees, identifying sites for new tree plantings, providing guidance to the town on tree preservation, and advocating for policies and funding that will integrate tree protection and stewardship into community planning. All of this work is made possible through contributions by individuals and businesses to our tree planting programs and through the work of a dedicated volunteer board.

The Greenwich Tree Conservancy is a non-profit organization open to all interested citizens created to preserve and enhance the tree and forest resources of Greenwich, Connecticut to benefit the community, its health and its quality of life.

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