On June 19 Camden Garden Club’s Tree Committee Chair Priscilla Granston met with club Co-Presidents Karen Cease and Ceil King; Rick Siebel, Camden’s Director of Public Works and Tree Warden, and Janice Esancy, Assistant to the Camden Town Manager on Bay View Street near one of the last trees to be planted under her watch. Granston has served on the committee since 2013 overseeing the Town Tree Program with the assistance of Siebel and Esancy. In that period 46 trees have been planted on public and private property in Camden. Granston’s successor for the 2020 program will be garden club member Ruth Ellison.

The Town Tree Program is a partnership between Camden Garden Club, the Town of Camden, and Camden residents. It was established primarily to replace trees lost to age, infestation, disease and weather and its origins can be traced to 1937 when the garden club voted to plant a tree on the Knowlton Street school ground. Since then, the club’s archives have documented at least 1,455 trees planted by Camden Garden Club programs. The town’s “aggressive effort to plant successive generations of shade trees along its highways and byways” earned Camden the designation of Tree City USA from the National Arbor Day Foundation in 1997.

This year three Sugar Maples were planted on town property; two on Bay View Street and one at the Snow Bowl. Three more Sugar Maples were planted on residence rights-of-way on Mechanic Street, Melvin Heights and Sea Street. The trees were supplied by Plants Unlimited and planted by Farley & Son Landscaping. The cost of the tree is shared by the town, the garden club, and the homeowner. For more information about the Town Tree Program contact Town of Camden Public Works Department.