A New Generation of Trees

Conifer Discovery Area in City Park

Creating an arboretum has been a chance to beautify and renew the park as well as to create a place to learn about trees. As we went to renew the plantings at the century-old City Park, we thought about the changes happening with old trees dying from storms and other causes and how we would both replace those and add to the diversity of the arboretum.

Because we had decided that learning about native Maine trees and ecosystems was an important part of the arboretum’s educational focus, we wanted to add places where you could learn specific things, such a conifers (evergreen trees) that live in Maine. So we created a Conifer Discovery Area just east of the tennis courts. This also gave us a chance to plant new trees where old ones were dying. When City Park was first landscaped, one thing the designers did was to create groves of trees, primarily of conifers. Many conifers in Maine are now suffering decline from disease and other factors, and some of the beautiful groves of red pines are showing signs of stress and decline.

In the Conifer Discovery Area, where we are working on planting most of the conifers native to Maine, the dying red pines drive home the point that coniferous trees are struggling. The warming climate for these cold weather trees is one factor. But warmth has a complex effect on plants, and sometimes encourages pests and pathogens to be able to overtake trees that are stressed from heat and drought.

In the photo you can see some of the young new conifers we planted including pitch pine, jack pine, red spruce, and balsam fir underneath the red pines. Also visible are recently planted white pines.