A resident of Florence who documents trees with exceptional characteristics around the world has found a significant patch of forest in his own backyard.
Robert Leverett, of Morningside Drive, in early August showed Gazette reporter Bera Dunau the old-growth forest abutting Broad Brook. He pointed out a variety of trees — including tulips, hickories, black birches, northern red oaks and white pines — that are up to 200 years old.
Leverett says, “Old growth is a confusing term. What we really mean by old growth is nature-managed over several centuries.”
Beside the age of trees, other signs include woody debris in various stages of decay on the forest floor, species that survive for many years and a heterogeneous group of trees. It is unusual because most of the wooded areas in Northampton were once agricultural land, where the oldest trees were cut to make way for farming.
Leverett, whose professional background is in electrical engineering, co-founded the Eastern Native Tree Society in 1996, on online community that documents and celebrates trees that are outstanding in height or age. After the group expanded its focus throughout the world, the word “Eastern” was dropped from the society’s name.
Leverett did not have to travel far to document the old-growth forest near his home, and he wants to see it preserved. Some of the trees are in the Broad Brook Greenway, which means they are permanently protected, says Wayne Feiden, the city’s director of planning and sustainability. Others are part of its forestry program on land owned by Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.
After Leverett contacted the school, it ended planned cutting in the area. According to Feiden, the city has offered the school rights to cut on other city-owned land, if a conservation restriction is put on the old-growth forest in the Broad Brook area.
We hope that school officials accept the city’s offer, so that unusual forest is preserved in its natural state. And we commend Leverett for his diligence in protecting these environs that remain largely untouched by people.
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We wish Penny Burke well when she retires in September after 14 years as executive director of the Northampton Center for the Arts, though we know she will not step away entirely from the city’s art scene.
Burke took on the temporary job of producing the Dec. 31, 2004, First Night Northampton for the arts center. When its executive director left at the end of that year, Burke agreed to remain as interim director and that became a permanent appointment.
Burke studied theater at Smith College, though her professional career had been as an event planner, travel writer and travel agent. She has left her mark on the arts community by establishing events such as Arts Night Out, the chalk art and ice sculpture festivals; putting the Center for the Arts on sound financial footing; and helping guide its move from Sullivan Square to the Northampton Community Arts Trust building on Hawley Street.
“She is really supportive of artists and what they are trying to do, whether it’s 13-year-olds who want to have a rock concert or an international dance group,” says Lisa Leizman, director of the center’s in-house dance company.
We’re glad that Burke now will have more time to enjoy the arts as a patron.
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A job well done also to Bob Saalfrank, who has retired at age 70 after 17 years of cooking meals for the MANNA Soup Kitchen that serves free meals five days a week at the Edwards and St. John’s churches in Northampton.
Saalfrank says he attended the very first meal served by MANNA in 1986 when he was at a low point in his life, and appreciated the support so much that he later became its head chef.
“MANNA changed my life and put it back where it should be, helping other people as well,” says Saalfrank, who had experience preparing meals for large groups as a military cook during the Vietnam War. “It’s a thrill to sit down and see other people enjoy a meal that they (otherwise) don’t have.”
He estimates that he served nearly 15,000 meals a year. That’s a lot of people he’s fed with his culinary skills and a generous dollop of compassion.
More on MANNA is available online at www.mannasoupkitchennorthampton.org/