New Haven Independent

The land trust oversees 50 community gardens and seven nature preserves. Curt Johnson (pictured on the right with environmental lawyer Peter Cooper) was the only founding member able to attend the festivities at Hopkins Tuesday night. He said a few people got together back in 1982 to begin organizing to preserve open space in the city, and noted that after some years the Land Trust’s mandate grew to include a burgeoning number of gardens.

Chris Prokop and Mattie Stevenson (pictured above) work at the Hill-Davenport garden, which Prokop said was started several years ago by neighborhood teens. “It continues to be a little oasis in that community,” he says. Click here to hear a description of the garden’s philosophy and the wonderful activities the garden has spawned, including African drumming and a harvest festival.

Stevenson has lived in New Haven more than 50 years; she said she got gardening in her blood from spending her early years on a farm (“a plantation”) in North Carolina. She rattled off some of the crops her family grew: “sweet potatoes, corn, field peas, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, collard greens, cabbage, tomatoes, white potatoes, tobacco.”

Hazel Standberry (pictured on the right, with Ellen Mahoney on the left) began gardening years ago in a garden on Chapel Street. Then she moved across town but she goes back to the garden every year. “They taught me everything I know about gardening…and it’s so quiet and comfortable there,” she said. Click here to her for more reasons the garden is a special place to her.

A video presentation included interviews with two founders — Curt Johnson and Sylvia Dorsey — who talked about the importance of the gardens as focal points for community building and community organizing. “People came out of their houses,” Dorsey said. “They were talking to each other. They were working on other issues — education, crime, drug problems, traffic issues, whatever pertained to them.”

All the New Haveners who have gone canoeing or birding with East Rock Ranger Dan Barvir may not recognize the gentleman in the suit, sans baseball cap, pictured on the left, chatting with Oliver Barton, the head of Common Ground High School.

Other movers and shakers included Anna Arroyo (pictured on the left) of the Community Foundation, which largely funds the community gardening program; and Sarah Ohly, a member of the Land Trust board who was one of the main organizers of the celebration.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (pictured with Land Trust President Paula Armbruster and Yale veep Mike Morand, who served as emcee, in the background) was recognized — with several standing ovations — for his environmental work. A tree will be planted in his honor at Common Ground High School in New Haven, which uses farming to teach academic subjects. He had just played a lead role in securing a $4.6 billion settlement with American Electric to install emissions equipment on all its coal-fired power plants, which will result in cleaner air in Connecticut and other parts of the country. “The enforcement of our environmental laws is alive and well,” he said, “despite the efforts of the Bush administration to eviscerate them.”

The award was named for Charles Lee Remington, one of the world’s foremost butterfly experts, who taught for decades at Yale University and used to lead nature walks for people of all ages in the city’s various nature preserves. He died a few months ago. His widow, Ellen Mahoney, spoke briefly and emphasized how her husband had always encouraged the sparks of interest in science that he observed in young people, and how many of them, including city kids, have gone on to become leaders in various disciplines of natural science.

Tom Morrissey, a bureau chief at the Department of Environmental Protection, noted that loving and caring for the land is a crucial ingredient in preserving open space. “Community gardens encourage outdoor stewardship.” he said. “Without stewardship we will lose our open spaces.” The DEP’s goal is to conserve 21 percent of Connecticut’s land as open space.

Allison Dodge, a staffer for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, brought greetings from her boss, who chairs an Agriculture subcommittee dealing with food security. Dodge pointed out that community gardens are a local form of food security, along with all the other benefits they provide.