Volunteers Bring Out The Best In Cherry Ann Park

A crew of neighbors and nature-promoters from throughout the city braved Saturday’s scorching heat to see the wonders that have arisen at Cherry Ann Park — and make it an even nicer ​“urban oasis.”

Audubon Connecticut Education Program Manager Ken Elkins and Chris Ozyck organized an educational workshop at the park for volunteers from Common Ground High School’s Green Job Corps and interested neighbors and other community members.

The park is at the end of Cherry Ann Street, which is half in Hamden, half in New Haven. The opened in 2017; it was in the works for years prior. (You can read about the history of the park here and here.) Volunteer work and events at the park have brought together the New Haven and Hamden communities into a unified ​“New Hamden” community. The neighbors worked together and with the city to clear out the formerly overgrown land to give kids a place to play and to beautify the area.

Ozyck said that before the park was created, ​“it was a dump.” Vines suffocated any living plants, and pulled down even the tallest trees. Mugworts and weeds grew to be six feet tall and consumed the lot. Volunteer groups and organizations like the Green Jobs Corps cut the vines and uprooted the weeds.

Elkins and Ozyck took the group out on a tour through the trees and gardens, pointing out different plant species, birds, and bugs. Elkins said large local parks like Edgewood are home to a hundred bird species and thousands of birds pass through other local parks like East Rock each day. ​“A richer diversity of plants and birds actually makes people happier,” healthier, and safer, Elikins argued. ​“And if you want more birds, you need more plants and bugs.”

The leaders showed off a wildflower field in the middle of the park. Ozyck said a wildflower field ​“is probably the most challenging part for any community groups to build and maintain.” Because many of the native plants are outcompeted by invasive species, he said, it can take three to five years to create such an area.

Claudia Herrera and her son Jared came from Fair Haven for the workshop. She said her neighborhood has planted 20 trees in the past fifteen years and they ​“don’t know what to do next.” Herrera has a hoard of bumblebees living outside her house. She wanted to learn ​“not only the right plant, but also the right place to plant so we can help them.”

On Saturday, she said, she learned not to buy plants from large stores like Home Depot for wildlife preservation. Although some stores might have the plant species that will attract wildlife, most of the plants are treated with harmful pesticides. To avoid this danger, Elkins and Ozyck encouraged her to visit local nurseries such as Natureworks in Northford or Broken Arrow in Hamden.

Three college student interns with the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) led a handful of Common Ground High School students as they began to plant primrose, asters, milkweed, mountain mint, and brown-eyed susan. Interns Gaston Neville and David Okeke are New Haven Promise students at UConn; Yale sophomore Jamie Chan is from Hong Kong.

The kids work from Tuesday through Saturday as they go to a different park each day, clearing weeds, planting trees, and beautifying the land. In addition to parks including East Rock and Edgewood, they come to work at Cherry Ann Street Park every Saturday.

Okeke said at Cherry Ann Street Park so far they have pulled out weeds, worked on the garden near the entrance, and taken out a fence to open up space for more planting. Neville said this is the second year for some of the high schoolers; the Green Job Corps is most of the students’ first job.

Neville said ​“the work is hard, especially in today’s heat, but it’s rewarding.” Okeke looked at the high school workers who were running around during their break and added jokingly ​“it’s hard work, but the hardest part is looking after them.”

Through the workshop, Elkins slught to highlight the combined efforts of the city, Fish and Wildlife Service, URI, and Common Ground High School in creating ​“urban oases.” Although the sanctuary of large parks like East Rock and Edgewood are necessary for birds during migration, Elkins said, birds also need other smaller places of refuge in case they can’t make it all the way to a larger park.

These smaller urban oases like Cherry Ann Street Park are being developed across the city.

Pat Wallace lives next door to Rainbow Park on Edgewood Avenue and has volunteered there for decades. Two trees came down in the small park last spring; a half dozen Rainbow park volunteers are working on planting new trees and reconfiguring the park.

Wallace said the Cherry Ann Street Park ​“has come a long way. It’s another great example of what URI makes possible with other organizations.” Wallace said she came to learn about birds and wildflowers so she can bring this knowledge back to Rainbow Park. She said at this workshop she even learned ​“I was pulling up a plant I should actually leave when I’m weeding. These workshops keep educating us on how to maintain our green spaces.”