Shovels in hand and boots deep in mud, a handful of volunteers dug holes and planted a dozen dawn redwood trees in Maidenhead Meadows Park in celebration of Arbor Day on April 27.
The trees were planted along a segment of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail – a pedestrian and bicycle path – that cuts through Maidenhead Meadows Park, which is located on Princeton Pike and across the street from Foxcroft Drive in Lawrence Township.
The newly-planted trees are a continuation of a line of dawn redwood trees that had been planted over the past few years along the Lawrence Hopewell Trail in the township-owned park.
Maidenhead Meadows Park is the site of a former plant nursery that was abandoned in the early 1980s, and that left behind many interesting trees, said David Bosted, who chairs the Lawrence Township Shade Tree Advisory Committee.
“Today, we are re-doubling the township’s investment in this arboretum with this Arbor Day planting,” Bosted said.
Boy Scout Troop 27 started planting an allee of dawn redwood trees in Maidenhead Meadows Park about 10 years ago. A few years later, the Lawrence Township Council planted a dawn redwood tree at the entrance to the park in memory of the late Stephen Brame, who served on the governing body.
“Now the Stephen Brame memorial dawn redwood tree and the Boy Scout allee will lead visitors to a grove of dawn redwood trees. We are creating a horticultural destination on the trail,” Bosted said.
Bosted said he has been asked about the size of the trees, and he has always replied that no one knows how big the trees will grow. No one has ever seen “one of those ancient, dinosaur-era trees stop growing,” he said.
A dawn redwood tree planted on the Princeton University campus in 1951, which was grown from a seed, is now more than 100 feet tall, Bosted said. The trees can grow as much as three feet per year, given the right conditions.
Lawrence Township Mayor Christopher Bobbitt, who was on hand to watch the volunteers plant the trees, said it was a pleasure to attend the event.
“Arbor Day is a time to celebrate our connection to nature, and to trees,” Mayor Bobbitt said, adding that Lawrence Township earned “Tree City USA” status 23 years ago by meeting four core standards of urban forestry management.
Those standards are maintaining a tree committee – in this case, the Shade Tree Advisory Committee; having a community tree ordinance; spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry; and celebrating Arbor Day.
State officials began promoting Arbor Day in 1949, following the designation of the last Friday in April as the day to honor trees and the people who take care of them.