BY LOUISA FARR
Castine is one of the only towns in the United States where a large number of “liberty elms,” as they were called in the Revolutionary War, still exist. Many are over 150 years old. At one point, they were a principal feature in the American landscape east of the Rockies, but since the 1930s most have died of Dutch elm disease.
Margaret Gregorie, a Castine resident who died one year ago and who fought to save the Castine Post Office elm, “believed in the value of all life” said her husband, Dan Gregorie. “What she loved about Castine were the trees.” Margaret’s passion for the natural world motivated her to bring together a group of people, later to be known as the ad hoc Tree Committee, to protect the majestic elms. Her legacy lives on in that group, which is now an official town committee, and in the Friends of the Elms.
This past April, the Castine Elm Tree Ordinance was passed. The document states that the ordinance was “adopted for the purpose of maintaining the historic green canopy of the Town of Castine by providing for the care and maintenance of its elm trees and significant streetscape trees.” The town’s budget for the care of elm trees was increased from $10,000 to $15,000, and the voters also approved an additional $5,000 if the amount was matched by private donations. This is where the Friends of the Elms comes in, and why they are busily making opportunities to raise money this year, to match the town and to add to the Elm Tree Preservation Fund, which supports projects to preserve Castine’s elm trees above and beyond the scope of what the town does through property taxes.
To start things off, a dinner was held on Tuesday, June 23, at the Pentagöet Inn. Sixty guests attended, officially launching the Friends of the Elms.
There will also be a raffle this summer of a hooked rug. Margaret Gregorie was a talented and accomplished fabric artist. Kathy Eaton, a member of the Tree Committee, was inspired by one of Margaret’s last works of an elm tree in the sun. “She was my friend and I thought this would be a good idea for a fundraiser,” Kathy said. She and Julie Wylie took Margaret’s design and began hooking a rug to be raffled off to benefit the town’s elm trees. The rug is made of wool on linen and it is 27 inches wide and 40 inches long. The wool is hand dip-dyed by Jeanne Benjamin, owner of New Earth Designs in Brookfield, Mass.
The raffle will begin Sunday, July 12, during Celebrate Castine. Tickets will be sold outside of the post office on Saturdays and at the Castine Farmers Market on Thursdays. The drawing will be on Sunday, August 30, at a Friends of the Elms reception at the Gregorie’s home.
Combining the proceeds from the dinner, the raffle, private donations, and Friends of the Elms membership, Tree Committee chairman Pat Mordecai believes that “[the amount] will be matched, no question.”
How did the people of Castine become so involved in the preservation of the elms? Margaret Gregorie’s ad hoc committee focused on trees when she was part of the Garden Club. She raised awareness of how many elms were being cut down, and she wondered if they could be saved. She really took action after the microburst storm in 2007 when the venerable post office elm, among many, was badly damaged. The selectmen resolved to take the tree down, at the recommendation of the town arborist. Margaret and Dan donated $500 to the town to hire Nancy and Doug Johnson of Treekeepers, LLC, in Camden, to inspect the post office elm. They confirmed that the tree could be saved, but the selectmen refused to reverse their decision.
Margaret then organized a signature campaign and called a town meeting to discuss the issue. Residents made signs and marched outside of the post office. Over 100 people came to town hall for the meeting, where selectmen and citizens shared their views. The vote at the meeting was 100 to 3 in favor of saving the tree.
Residents understand the importance of their elms and the constant effort needed to keep them alive. The Tree Committee has played an active role, applying for and obtaining a grant of $8,612 from Project Canopy, a program supported by the Maine Forest Service and the Pine Tree State Arboretum, in the spring of 2008, which was used to conduct an inventory of the 322 elm trees on-neck and to pay for legal help in writing the ordinance. Recently, the Committee received another grant of $8,000 from Project Canopy to pay for backlog maintenance of the elms.
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