The Honorable Sebastian N. Giuliano, Mayor of Middletown, today signed land-use and germ-plasm agreements with the Connecticut Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation.
With these agreements in place, CT-TACF will collaborate with the Middletown Urban Forestry Commission and the Middletown Garden Club to create a 1.5-acre American chestnut orchard on land near the city's Higby Reservoir.
 [click to enlarge] photo courtesy of Jane Harris |
According to Jane Harris, a member of the three organizations, this orchard will be planted and tended by volunteers from the Middletown Garden Club, the Middletown High School Vocational-Agricultural program, the Boy Scouts of America and the Alternative Incarceration Center of the Connection, Inc.
In the attached photo, Mayor Giuliano, flanked at right by Jennifer Saines and at left by Jane Harris, signs the documents. Mayor Giuliano, who grew up and still lives in the South Farms section of Middletown, said that he would be delighted to see the return of the American chestnut to this community. “My family has never celebrated Thanksgiving without chestnuts,” he said with a smile. |
| The Higby Reservoir site (photo at right) had already been selected by the community for the growing of urban trees for sidewalk plantings and landscaping. “This research orchard is a great complementary addition” says Harris. The American Chestnut Foundation has a history in CT of successfully pollinating local Connecticut trees to capture their genes for future generations of blight resistant and ecologically valuable American chestnut. Continues Harris, “This partnership puts Middletown in a great position to leverage our experience growing the American chestnut when reforestation begins.” Read more here. |  [click to enlarge] photo courtesy of Jane Harris |
