U.S. FOREST SERVICE Living Memorials Project Summary
United States Forest Department of Agriculture Service Living Memorials Project Summary www.livingmemorialsproject.net
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, naational origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or maital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202- 720-2600 (voice and TDD)
To file a complaint of discrimination, write USCA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call 202- 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. INTRODUCTION WHAT IS THE LIVING MEMORIALS PROJECT?
The Living Memorials Project of the U.S. Forest in local initiatives. These materials have Service supports a network of people and sacred transcended 9/11 to motivate and educate readers to places dedicated to those who lost their lives and to create green spaces that draw in the visitor, engage the heroes of Sept 11, 2001 (9/11) . them in subtle ways, triggering memories and feelings that leave them stronger and more resilient, The gardens and parks established through this proud, and forward-looking. project with congressional support have helped restore hope and foster healing in family, friends, This is the power of the landscape: Trees, water, and neighbors. They have also served as models or stone and pathways that guide and embrace the catalysts for many of other projects , small and large, traveler, slowing him or her to the point of throughout the nation and world wide. reflection .
The online tools and resources have been tapped We encourage you to visit these living memorials , more than a million times , to help project planners, and more : Create your own. Visit us at designers, residents, and investors become engaged www.livingmemorialsproject.net
1 LIVING MEMORIALS PROJECT SUMMARY ABOUT NATIONALAL REGISTRY TOOLBOXOX
r p~ a~ ^ c p /LYLQJ 0HPRULDOV 3URMHFW k ~ HOW | WHY PROJECTS WERE SELECTED Projects selected for funding were those that had strong community commitment and involvement, Through its Urban and Community Forestry were centrally located and visible, and had a Program, the U.S. Forest Service had the ready symbolic connection to the events of 9/11 authorities and skills necessary to develop unique surrounding New York City, Somerset County, PA, place-making tools and opportunities. Early in and Arlington, VA. 2002 and again in 2003, with Congressional support 2. SOCIAL AND SITE ASSESSMENT of $3 million, the Forest Service reached out to an | As part of the TOOLS AND ASSISTANCE TO COMMUNITIES established network of state and local officials and Living Memorials Project team, the scientists from the nonprofit organizations . 1. LMP WEBSITE | The Living Memorials Project Forest Service’s Northern Research Station conducted website combines an “About” section, the National an open and participatory social and site assessment of The Forest Service pulled together a team of Registry, and a “Toolbox” section. The toolbox was public spaces that have been created, used, or researchers, planners, designers, landscape architects created to be a first stop on the web for information enhanced in memory of the tragic events of 9/11. and foresters to advise and support the work of the related to living memorials. It combines the Researchers interviewed 100 community groups using applicants, resulting in a unique federal response expertise of the U .S. Forest Service and consultants social ecology methods of observation, discursive and commitment to local success. Partners in in the fields of landscape design, placemaking, analysis, and photo-narrative mapping. One of the program delivery, including the Urban Resources ethnobotany, and social science, with the examples findings was that after 9/11, communities needed Initiative in New Haven, CT, came forward quickly and lessons learned from our Living Memorial space: space to create, space to teach, space to restore, to support the initiative. partner projects. It is organized around the space to create a locus of control. These social motivations formed the basis of patterned human The specific call was for project ideas and local principles of People, Plants, Plan , and Place, in the responses observed throughout the nation The social partners seeking to use the resonating power of trees belief that all of these elements are vital to the and site assessment improved the focus of the projects to bring people together and create lasting, living creation and continued thriving of a living included in the second cycle of grants . memorials to the victims of terrorism, their families, memorial. In addition, the Power section offers a The publication is available online at: communities, and the nation . resource list for further research . http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/livingmemorials 2 Land-markings: 12 Journeys through 9/11 Living Memorials ERIKA S. SVENDSEN AND LINDSAY K. CAMPBELL USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station United States Forest Department of Agriculture Service 3. NATIONAL REGISTRY AND NATIONAL MAP | The 5. LAND-MARKINGS EXHIBITION | Land-markings: Northern Research Station created a National 12 Journeys through 9/11 Living Memorials is a Registry that serves as an online inventory of multimedia exhibition that compresses 4 years of hundreds of community-based, living memorial research data and analysis on more than 700 living sites. Using in-person social ecology research memorials into 12 digitally authored journeys. methods, supported by a multi-year local newspaper Social science researchers, urban ecologists, database search, the National Registry and map are designers, and architects collaborated in order to 4. DESIGN COLLABORATIVE | In the process of the most comprehensive database of living collect, analyze, and present this dispersed collective developing the Living Memorials Project, the memorials in existence. More than 700 memorials response to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. As a Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry created from 2001-2004 are displayed on an online result, this interpretation presents memorials not identified a unique educational opportunity for interactive National Map created in collaboration only as mechanisms by which we mark events and landscape architecture students, their institutions with the design firm, Urban-Interface. The Registry individuals, but also interprets the function and and recipient communities in need of memorial invites the public to share information about their spatial location of these remembrances, treating design support. The Design Collaborative matched projects and become part of the national map and them as emergent forms that outline how we projects, including Groundwork Yonkers Healing registry. Projects, stories, and photographs are interact with our public landscapes. This exhibition Trees Project, Open Road Park, and the Shaw posted on the web and shared with others was organized jointly by Parsons The New School EcoVillage, with future design professionals from throughout the country. For Design, The Tishman Environment and Design graduate-level Landscape Architecture programs http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/registry.asp Center at The New School, and the Forest Service’s including City College of New York, Cornell Northern Research Station. It was installed at the University, and Virginia Tech, and provided students National Park Service’s Federal Hall National an opportunity to apply their skills in a professional Memorial in New York, NY from October 6 to 27, public setting. The Design Collaborative Final 2006 . The DVD and print catalog are available to the Report provides detailed information for public. http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/livingmemorials communities hoping to replicate the community design process. http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/DOWNLOA DS/LM_DesCollab_Report.pdf 3 LIVING MEMORIALS PROJECT SUMMARY FOREST SERVICE SUPPORTED PROJECTS 2002 – 2006 American Patriot Garden Cold Spring American Patriot Garden Garden of Reflection Site: Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY Site: Mayor McConville Park, Site: Memorial Park, Yardley, PA Project Lead: Nassau County Cold Spring, NY Project Lead: Township of Lower Department of Parks, Recreation, and Project Lead: Village of Cold Spring Makefield, www.9-11memorialgarden.org Museums, Site type: park Site type: park www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Park Memorial: circle of trees and six benches Memorial: 6 acres landscaped with more s/index.html surrounding a flagpole in a small park than 50 trees including cherries, pines, Site type: park along with a stone walkway, flagpole, Memorial: memorial plaza with trees, and a fountain on a 65 acre park site Connecticut’s 9-11 Living Memorial flagpoles, and wall in the center of a 940-acre county park Site: Sherwood Island State Park, Westport, CT Garrison School Memorial Project Lead: Connecticut Office of Site: Garrison Elementary School, An American Remembrance Family Support, www.cthelps.state.ct.us Garrison, NY Site: Manalapan Arboretum, Site type: park Project Lead: Garrison Elementary Manalapan, NJ School Memorial: four hackberry trees, pines, Project Lead: Manalapan Shade Tree and cedars planted into the dunes, Site type: park Commission, www.twp.manalapan.nj.us flowering shrubs and native grasses Memorial: small memorial garden Site type: civic grounds surrounding a low-lying granite connected to an active, landscaped Memorial: 12 trees and a granite stone memorial stone on a state park beach walkway surrounding school playing in a town arboretum fields Contemplative Garden A Celebration of Life— Site: Boston Public Garden, Boston, MA Grove of Healing Walkway of Remembrance Project Lead: Massachusetts 9/11 Fund, Site: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY Site: Gene Levy Park, Ramapo, NY www.massfund.org Project Lead: New York City Department Project Lead: Town of Ramapo Site type: park of Parks and Recreation, www.nycgovparks.org Site type: park Memorial: 5,000 sq ft area of the public Memorial: 23 trees with plaques along a garden enhanced with new trees, Site type: park walking path in an active park benches, plantings, and memorial Memorial: grove of flowering trees, low stones plantings, and daffodils framing a view of the Manhattan skyline on a hillside Clarkstown American Patriot Garden corner of an urban park Site: Street Community Center, Garden of Healing Clarkstown, NY Site: Staten Island Botanical Garden G.R.A.C.E Memorial at Veterans Park Project Lead: Clarkstown Department of (SIBG), Staten Island, NY Recreation and Parks Project Lead: Staten Island Botanical Site: Veterans Park, Glen Rock, NJ Site type: civic grounds Garden, www.sibg.org Project Lead: Glen Rock Assistance Council and Endowment (GRACE), Memorial: Three new trees and plaques Site type: park www.glenrocknj.net adjacent to other memorial trees in a Memorial: woodland walk on the promenade on the lawn of a community grounds of a botanical garden, Site type: park center connected by an existing allee of Memorial: over 20 new trees, shrubs, hornbeams to a small museum Tribute and groundcover planted, existing trees Center maintained, and deadwood removed around a built memorial of World Trade Center steel in a community Veterans Park 4 Grove of Healing Healing Garden Highlands American Patriot Garden Site: Seaside Nature Park, Staten Island, NY Site: Intersection of Targee, Clove, and Site: Highlands Police Department, Project Lead Turnaround Friends, Inc. Narrows Road South, Staten Island, NY Highlands, NY www.turnaroundfriends.org Project Lead: Federated Garden Project Lead: Town of Highlands; Vision Site Type: park Clubs of New York State, 2002, www.visiontownofhighlands.com www.gardenclubs-of-nys.org Memorial: 40 different trees planted in Site type: park groves on a 2-acre site with winding paths Site type: found space Memorial: new memorial garden and park in a neighborhood Memorial: “Patriot’s Path” allee of along a pond and greenway Year 2 Project: 80 different trees planted in redbuds; firefighters’ memorial weeping cherry; 78 smoke trees; variety of shrub groves on a 2-acre site with winding paths Hoboken September 11 and flower plantings, on a traffic island in a neighborhood waterfront park Memorial Tree Grove Site: Pier A Park, Hoboken, NJ Healing Trees Grove of Remembrance Project Lead: City of Hoboken Site: Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ Site: Open Road Park, New York, NY Department of Environmental Services, Project Lead: New Jersey Tree Foundation, Project Lead: Open Road of New York, www.hobokennj.org www.newjerseytreefoundation.org www.openroadny.org Site type: park Site type: park Site type: community garden Memorial: urban grove of ginkgo trees, Memorial: 691 trees planted on a 10-acre Memorial: 10 new tree plantings and granite benches, and glass memorial site in a large urban park, with active and landscape improvements from a sculpture in a heavily used pier park passive walkways leading to the Hudson community-created design in an urban community garden, 25 trees propagated River waterfront and view of the Manhattan Legacy Groves of Somerset County skyline for planting in other gardens and sites Sites: multiple sites in Somerset County, PA: Volunteer Firefighters Training Center; Harmony Grove Peace Walk and Labyrinth Healing Trees Project Somerset County Vocational Technical Site: Brook Park, Bronx, NY Sites: Hudson River waterfront; St. School John’s Church; Yonkers Vark Street Project Lead: Friends of Brook Park, Project Lead: Conemaugh Valley Firehouse, Yonkers, NY www.friendsofbrookpark.org Conservancy, Project Lead: Groundwork Yonkers, www.conemaughvalleyconservancy.org Site type: community garden www.groundworkyonkers.org Site type: found space Memorial: landscaped labyrinth in a Site types: park, civic grounds, community garden with youth Memorial: two groves of six sugar maple found space programming trees at the volunteer firefighter training Memorial: locust trees, shrubs, grasses, center and an area school and three memorial stones inlaid into Year 2 Project: 13 groves of six sugar Haverstraw American Patriot Garden the ground at the waterfront; linear maple trees of various sizes planted at Site: Haverstraw Bay County Park, Rockland plantings of pines at the church site; sites of local significance by volunteers County, NY single Liberty elm with a heart-shaped throughout Somerset County Project Lead: Rockland County mulch bed at the firehouse site Executive/Legislature September 11th ResponseCommittee,www.co.rockland.ny.us Site type: park Memorial: waterfront memorial garden adjacent to a large sculpture and plaza in a new county park 5 LIVING MEMORIALS PROJECT SUMMARY Living Memorial Trail Memorial of Remembrance Reflecting Absence: Site: Lafayette Ave between Longfellow Site: Shrine of St. Joseph, Long Hill, NJ The World Trade Center Memorial Rd. and Edgewater Rd., Bronx, NY Project Lead: Shrine of St. Joseph, Site: World Trade Center site, Project Lead: Greening for Breathing, www.stshrine.org New York, NY www.ssbx.org Site type: forest Project Lead: Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Site type: found space Memorial: white pines and a variety of www.wtcsitememorial.org Memorial: street trees and flower low plantings reforesting and plantings on two urban blocks leading to landscaping an area surrounding a Site type: event specific a community-maintained park on the memorial tower of WTC steel beams on Memorial: 265,000 sq ft plaza with two Bronx River the grounds of a Catholic shrine three-acre voids at the building footprints with running water cascading over the edges, surrounded by 400 MacNeil Park 9-11 Viewshed Grove Orangetown American Patriot Garden swamp white oak and sweetgum trees Site: MacNeil Park, Queens, NY Site: Orangetown, NY, town hall arranged in a random grove and a formal Project Lead: New York City Department Project Lead: Town of Orangetown, glade. The trees will be sited atop an of Parks and Recreation, www.orangetown.com underground memorial within the www.nycgovparks.org Site type: civic grounds former foundations of the Twin Towers; Site type: park Memorial: small plantings surrounding a FS funding was used to purchase Memorial: 43 white flowering trees carved memorial stone on town memorial trees from affected areas of planted at a street end, along a path, municipal grounds New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. and in a promontory grove in a neighborhood park that is a viewshed to Pentagon Memorial Park Richard Cudina Memorial the World Trade Center site and was a Site: Memorial Park, Lebanon, NJ gathering place on 9-11 Site: Pentagon Reservation, Arlington, VA Project Lead: Richard Cudina Project Lead: Pentagon Memorial Fund, Memorial Committee, Mahopac American Patriot Garden www.richardcudinamemorial.com http://memorial.pentagon.mil/ Site: Chamber Park, Mahopac, NY Site type: park Site type: Park Project Lead: Mahopac Chamber of Memorial: plaza with built memorial of Memorial: 100+ maple trees clustered in Commerce, www.mahopacchamber.com World Trade Center steel and seasonal a field of 'memorial units' Site type: park plantings, connected to a contemplative Memorial: memorial garden in a new, woodland path small, waterfront municipal park Recovering Lost Ground Site: Cottage Gardens housing Russian Family Memorial development, Yonkers, NY Marlboro Township Living Memorial Site: Seaside Park, Brooklyn, NY Project Lead: Groundwork Yonkers, Site: Marlboro Township, NJ, municipal Project Lead: September 11 Family www.groundworkyonkers.org complex Group, Site type: civic grounds Project Lead: Marlboro Township www.september11familygroup.org Memorial Committee, Memorial: 29 flowering cherry trees, Site type: found space within existing www.marlboro-nj.gov community garden vegetable beds, rain parkland garden, perennial flower beds, a “wave” Site Type: civic grounds Memorial: A Persian weeping willow was mural, and a memorial mosaic on the planted within a cluster of young and Memorial: circle of flowering dogwoods grounds of a public housing project surrounding benches and a memorial mature trees which include a Siberian fountain on the township municipal elm and a sycamore. grounds 6 Scarsdale American Legion Trees for Life and Unity—Bronx Washington D.C. September 11 th Memorial Garden Sites: community gardens throughout Memorial Tree Grove Project— Site: Scarsdale Memorial Garden, Bronx, NY: Garden of Youth, Garden of Kingman Island Scarsdale, NY Happiness, Tremont Community Garden, Site: Kingman Island, Washington, D.C. Project Lead: Scarsdale American Legion Daly Avenue Block Association Garden, Project Lead: Green Spaces for D.C. , and others Site type: civic grounds www.greenspacesfordc.org Project Lead: Green Guerillas, Memorial: landscaped, walled garden Site type: park www.greenguerillas.org with memorial plaques and trees Memorial: island restoration with Site type: community garden educational trail and memorial grove; Memorial: 40 trees planted and eight neighborhood memorial groves September 11 Memorial Grove dedicated in 19 urban community Site: Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY gardens Washington D.C. Project Lead: Prospect Park Alliance, September 11 th Memorial Groves— www.prospectpark.org Trees for Life and Unity: Brooklyn Neighborhood Groves Site type: park Sites: community gardens throughout Sites: neighborhood parks, school, Memorial: 50 trees and more than 30 Brooklyn, NY: 64 th Street Community and cemetery across 8 wards of shrubs planted in naturalistic groves Garden; Warren Street Community Washington, D.C. with a stone marker within a large, urban Garden; Jes Good Rewards; Green Gems Project Lead: GreenSpaces for D.C. park Community Garden; Jordan Magic Site types: park, civic grounds, Garden; Bedford Avenue Block found space Sterling Forest Project Association Garden; First Quincy Street Green Thumb Garden; Nicole’s Place Memorial: trees, planting, and signage Site: Arrow Lake-Sterling Forest, in eight neighborhood groves; island Orange County, NY Garden; GREC Garden; CAUSA Festival Garden restoration with educational trail and Project Lead: Orange County Land Trust, memorial grove www.oclt.org Project Lead: Green Guerillas, www.greenguerillas.org Site type: forest Site type: community garden WTC United Family Group Memorial Memorial: hundreds of white pines Site: Eagle Rock Reservation, planted as a memorial forest restoration Memorial: single trees or groups of trees, generally flowering and/or fruit-bearing, West Orange, NJ planted in ten community gardens Project Lead: WTC United Family Group Tree Planting in Highbridge Park Site type: park to Honor the Victims of September 11th Tribute Park Memorial: seven trees with plaques Site: Highbridge Park, New York, NY Site: 116th Street and Beach Channel alongside a wall of names with views of Project Lead: New York Restoration Drive, Far Rockaway, NY Lower Manhattan Project, www.nyrp.org Project Lead: Rockaway Chamber of Site type: park Commerce, Memorial: groves of trees and www.rockawaychamberofcommerce.com landscaping planted by volunteers in Site type: park four locations in an urban linear park Memorial: new, interactive, waterfront tribute park 7 LIVING MEMORIALS PROJECT SUMMARY FOREST SERVICE RESPONSE WHAT’S NEXT Immediately following the events of September 11, The Forest Service will continue to foster 2001, the Forest Service responded to the tragedy by collaboration in the creation and enhancement of sending more than 500 smoke jumpers, firefighters, community spaces by bringing together citizens, GIS technicians and incident management students, organizations, institutions and the private specialists to New York City. Managing projects, sector through technical, grant and research coordinating teams, and assisting city and state opportunities. Members of the public interested in efforts, the Forest Service drew on its 100 -year initiating Living Memorial projects in their own history of battling fire and found relevancy in the communities can receive guidance, technical urban environment at an extremely poignant time . resources , ideas and inspirations . This spirit remains embedded in the agency and Please visit: http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net staff along with the legacy of the Living Memorial to learn more. Project . The Living Memorials Project brings an important healing component to Forest Service response and restoration efforts around the country . Communities from the Gulf Coast to those affected by western forest fires have looked to parks and open spaces to commune, and memorialize traumatic events. The Forest Service Living Memorials Project attempted to amplify community actions after September 11, 2001 and to connect decentralized, yet common, threads of expression and hope. 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Northeastern Area Contributors Kathryn Maloney, Area Director Robin Morgan, Asst. Director, Forest Management Phil Rodbell, Urban and Community Forestry, Program Manager Matt Arnn, Area Landscape Architect, Living Memorials Project Leader Anne Cumming, Morgantown Field Office Robert Fitzhenry, Durham Field Office Northern Research Station Contributors Michael Rains, Director Mark Twery, Research Project Leader J. Morgan Grove, Research Forester Erika S. Svendsen, Research Social Scientist Lindsay K. Campbell, Research Urban Planner Susan Wright , Writer-Editor David Bloniarz , Project Coordinator, UNRI Partners and Contributors Approach City College of NY, Dept. of Landscape Architecture Cornell University, Dept. of Landscape Architecture Dirtworks, P.C. Theodore Eisenman, Environmental Design Groundwork Yonkers Metropolitan United Studio Parsons, the New School Princeton ReachOut ‘56 Meristem OASIS NYC Open Road NY Project for Public Spaces Shaw EcoVillage Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Dept. of Landscape Architecture Urban-Interface Urban Resources Institute, New Haven, CT Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Photos provided through the Living Memorials Project National Registry FOR ADDITIONAL COPIES: USDA Forest Service Publications Distribution 359 Main Road Delaware, Ohio 43015-8640 Fax: (740)368-0152 or visit www.livingmemorialsproject.net