Carrie Jones

Oct 18, 2024

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The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Side Street Cafe.

BAR HARBOR—As trees come down at the Conners-Emerson School for construction this week, some students are preparing to plant a few more at the town’s ball park.

“The timing of our trees coming down at school as we are planning to plant trees is serendipitous!” said Conners-Emerson teacher Elizabeth Gilman.

Last year, Gilman’s sixth graders participated in book clubs with groups reading different titles about environmental studies.

“One group read Drawn to Change the World: 16 Youth Climate Activists, 16 Artists by Emma Reynolds,” Gilman said. “Inspired by one of the young activists in the book, Leah Namugerwa from Uganda, they wanted to take action by planting trees.”

The students didn’t just talk about making positive change in the community; they took action, step by step. They organized a bake sale and raised $187 to buy saplings last spring. But then they needed a place to plant the trees and permission to do so.

“We contacted the town to see what and where would be a good place to plant,” Gilman said.

They decided that some trees at the town’s ball field off Park Street were not quite as healthy as they could be.

“There are three trees proposed to be planted along the paved parking lot side of the ball field. It’s my understanding that trees were previously planted in these areas but that they died some time ago. So we are ‘in filling’ those gaps with three new trees,” said Bar Harbor Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt.

The Town Council made it official Tuesday night and the planting will occur October 30 at 3 p.m., said Town Manager James Smith.

The students purchased three red sunset maple saplings from Plants Unlimited in Trenton and plan to plant them at the ballfields on the 30th of October after school.

The tree planting comes at a time when many in the past and present Conners Emerson community are lamenting the removal of many older trees on the school’s site. Trees lining the playground are gone as are trees that were part of the Outdoor Learning Lab. The removal has been part of the site preparation for the new building that will replace the current aging buildings.

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