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Letting the Chips Fall Where They Should
November 3, 2007

Seven intrepid members of Boy Scout Troop 183 turned out on a blustery early November morning to help maintain Udalls Cove Park and Preserve. The young men worked with members of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee in the area around Aurora Pond. Wielding pitchforks and rakes, and using a small armada of wheelbarrows, they moved hundreds of cubic feet of fresh wood chips onto the trail system around the Pond. Over 700 linear feet of trail were “resurfaced” with new chips to augment the original layer put down when the Pond restoration work began in 2004.


The team of Scouts also planted a 15-foot high American elm tree north of the pond, next to one of the trails. Full grown American elms are beautiful and stately vase-shaped trees. They used to be widespread throughout the eastern U.S., gracing many public streets and squares as well as forests. Dutch Elm disease, accidentally introduced into the U.S. about 80 years ago, had killed nearly all of them by the 1960s. The tree planted by the Scouts is the product of an intense effort during the past four decades to breed a disease-resistant American elm. The tall, young tree was provided at a very favorable price by Keil Brothers Nursery of Bayside. Look for it when you pass by the Pond – it is standing just inside the entry, to the left of the trail around the Pond.
 

Last modified: 10/22/08