On Newport’s south side, historic homes sit along streets lined with mature trees that help cool neighborhoods, clean the air and foster wildlife. On the city’s poorer North End, where some streets have subsidized housing, large trees are fewer and far between. For Earth Day, the Newport Tree Conservancy brought 15 volunteers to Miantonomi Memorial Park, a 30-acre, city-owned space in the northern part of Newport, to help improve the forest there.
Natasha Harrison, the conservancy’s executive director, said the uneven distribution of trees leaves some residents with fewer benefits. “People in this neighborhood aren’t receiving the benefits of trees,” Harrison said. “They need more.”
The conservancy has planted hundreds of native trees as part of its efforts to create a healthier forest in Miantonomi Memorial Park. Harrison and the volunteers described the work as a way to increase the tree canopy in the area and raise a local “tree equity score,” which measures whether neighborhoods have enough trees for people to experience health, economic and climate benefits.
In the park, many native trees have faced setbacks, including competition from invasive plants, disease and browse pressure from deer, rabbits and squirrels. This year, the conservancy said it also wanted to improve the odds for young trees by digging up native seedlings to nurture them in its nursery before replanting them in the forest.
Joe Verstandig, the conservancy’s living collections manager, led the group into the park’s woods and pointed out plants the volunteers were working to counter. He described invasive species they are targeting, including devil’s walking stick (Aralia spinosa), Norway maples and Japanese knotweed. Verstandig also showed volunteers how to methodically dig up plants they were trying to save, such as arrowwood, elderberry and American holly.
The group included friends Allie Bujakowski and Mara Swist. Bujakowski said she lives about a mile from the park and walks her dog there, while Swist lives nearby in Portsmouth. Bujakowski said she wanted to get involved for Earth Day and noted the conservancy had already planted a tree in her front yard.
“They are getting trees in spaces in the community where we really need them,” Bujakowski said. She added that she has seen trees planted two years ago and that they have brought birds back.
Harrison said the conservancy’s tree-equity work was supposed to be supported by federal funding the U.S. Forest Service awarded to the Arbor Day Foundation, which she described as a nonprofit dedicated to tree planting and conservation. Harrison said the Forest Service terminated a $75 million grant last year to the foundation after President Donald Trump’s administration sought to end environmental justice initiatives, and she said the conservancy had expected to receive $150,000 from the Arbor Day Foundation.
Harrison said the conservancy’s donors covered the gap after the cancellation, and she said volunteers helped the nonprofit keep moving toward its mission. “It was stressful, but I didn’t want to let it derail us,” Harrison said. The conservancy has partnered with the city to plant trees throughout Newport for almost 40 years and improve the city’s tree canopy.