Hello! My name is Michael Metivier. As the current tree warden for the town of Windsor, I wanted to start this blog on the town’s website where I could post period communication about the town’s trees as well as special projects, recommended reading, etc.
One special project I would like to start is a Windsor Tree Species Inventory. The result will be a comprehensive list of tree species (both native and nonnative, wild and cultivated) that grow in Windsor, posted on the town’s website, with links to more information about tree species and ecosystems.
I invite Windsor residents to email me a list of tree species you know are present in your yard, woods, neighborhood, etc. If there’s a tree growing on your property or in your neighborhood and you’re unsure what it is, feel free to include a picture or let me know where it’s growing. I’d love to stop by and talk trees. Private tree location information will not be shared!
Email your tree(s) to: mmetivier@windsorvt.org or treewarden@windsorvt.org
The photo that you see is of a common hackberry tree growing in Windsor—the state champion!—and was taken this summer when it was re-measured by Gwen Kozlowski of the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry program with the help of myself.
The common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) is also known as northern hackberry, beaverwood, and sugarberry, among other names. The species is much more prevalent in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions than in Vermont, where Windsor sits near the very tip of its natural range. It’s a beautiful tree with odd, warty, pebbly protuberances on its bark. It prefers to grow in moist, nutrient-rich soil, so it’s no surprise that there are a few common hackberry trees growing in Windsor here in the Upper Valley. True to its name, it does produce small, pea-sized, edible (though low in moisture) berries that ripen in September. Indigenous peoples across what is now known as North America have been eating and cooking with hackberries for millennia.