Paul Bass Photo
Wilkins Guadalupe helped elm trees launch a second shot at surviving in the Elm City.
In the process, he was embarking on his own second-chance survival quest.
Guadalupe (pictured) was among the crew planting an elm tree on McKinley Avenue near the spot where a storm felled a century-old maple.
New Haven is called the Elm City because we used to have so many distinctive elm trees. Then Dutch Elm disease killed them off.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the McKinley crew was planting a hybrid elm developed to withstand Dutch Elm disease.
It was the 11th tree the crew had planted that day. It was part of the final week of the season in which the crew is planting 300 new trees in New Haven, including a batch of elms. (Read more about the crew’s final-week push here, here, and here.)
Guadalupe was working alongside some other men who, like him, recently got out of jail. They get assigned to the tree-planting crew through EMERGE Connecticut, which helps ex-offenders transition back into society. EMERGE teams up with Urban Resources Initiative (URI), which contracts with the city to plant new trees around town.
Guadalupe served an eight-year sentence at Osborn Correctional Institution for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. “I was a young kid without a father in the projects” in New Britain, he said. His life started out on the wrong course. He said that changed after he was sent to Osborn. He came under the influence of an older inmate named Jose. “He taught me a lot” about how to improve his life, Guadalupe said. Jose spent 45 years in Osborn.
Covid-19 got a grip on Jose. Before Jose died, Guadalupe said, “I made him a promise”: That once he left Osborn, “I would never return.”
Since his release a few months ago, Guadalupe has been staying at a halfway house on Henry Street. During the day he’s out working with the EMERGE crew. He never knew before what it takes to plant a tree.
As he helped prepare the ground for planting the elm on McKinley Wednesday afternoon, he saw a connection between the day’s work and his life’s trajectory.
“It’s a new life,” Guadalupe said of the tree. And of his own current status. “A new beginning. A new experience of life.”
The felled maple lived a long life. It was still healthy when high winds began toppling trees across town Aug. 4 during Tropical Storm Isaias. Jonathan Spodick (pictured), who lives in the house on the corner, watched it fall.
He was on the second floor at the time, on the phone. A Yale New Haven Hospital behavior health specialist, he has been working from home during the pandemic.
Winds were already blowing hard. Trees were falling around town. So were utility wires.
Then came a microburst — and the mighty maple swayed. First toward the Yale Bowl. Then toward the hill west. It landed right in the street …
… and 100 years of roots popped up the sidewalk. (The city cleared the tree from the street. The sidewalk stump remains for now.)
After the storm passed, neighbors came out to survey the damage. Similar scenes occurred in neighborhoods across town. From a social distance people compared notes, noted the damage, clicked photos. It felt festive.
Then one neighbor told Spodick, “I’m sorry.”
“How come?” Spodick answered.
“You lost a centennial tree.”
True. That was sad. Spodick grew up around the corner on Alden Avenue, one of the Westville flats streets transformed into wonderlands parts of the year by the tree canopies. He returned to settle in the neighborhood as an adult.
Spodick also knew that New Haveners can request that URI come plant new trees for free in return for a promise to water them for the first three years. URI had already planted two saplings for him on the Edgewood Avenue side of his property.
So he contacted the organization. He received a list of options. He saw “elm” on the list. He was sold. URI has been locating hybrid elms that can withstand the deadly Dutch Elm disease. It has planted four Morton Elms (including the one Spodick requested) and 11 Lacebark Elms (aka “Chinese Elms”) this fall as a result.
Spodick was on hand Wednesday as the URI-EMERGE crew dug the hole …
… pruned some of the nascent tree’s branches so the remainder won’t compete for sunlight …
… measured the root flare so they set it at ground level (so the roots will be able to breathe and the trunk remains stable) …
… rolled it into the hole …
… filled in the hole …
… and, at the hand of team leader William Tisdale, added compost for extra nutrients.
Guadalupe, head protected by the star-knit cap of his favorite football team, was proud of the work. “It’s a new experience,” he said. “Growth and life.”
The whole crew was proud. They assembled for a celebratory photo. Standing, from left: Tisdale, Guadalupe, Spodick, Ra Hasim, Myron Mullins, Steve Neary, and Francis Commercon. Kneeling in front: URI GreenSkills Program Manager Caroline Scanlan.
Scanlan urged anyone who wants to request a tree to contact URI here. Planting resumes in the spring. She said the team may return then to replace the fallen maple if the stump is removed.
Guadalupe, meanwhile, hopes to keep learning new skills. His hoped-for next step is barber school. Then he wants to get to work not just cutting hair — but owning the shop.
Previous coverage of URI tree-planting:
See below for previous articles in this series.
• 7 New Trees Green Industrial Annex Block
• Concrete Cleared For Roots To Grow
• RIP, Ash; Welcome, Yellowwood!
Click on the above podcast for an interview with URI chief Colleen Murphy-Duning about the organization’s work.