United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Living Memorials Project: Northeastern Year 1 Social and Site Assessment Research Station Northeastern Area Erika S. Svendsen State and Private Forestry Lindsay K. Campbell General Technical Report NE-333 Abstract The USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station, as part of the Living Memorials Project (LMP) team, conducted an open and participatory social and site assessment of public spaces that have been created, used, or enhanced in memory of the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (9-11). Researchers created a National Registry that serves as an online inventory of living memorial sites and social motivations associated with natural resource stewardship. Through the first year of research, more than 200 Living Memorials have been located in every state in the nation. Researchers interviewed 100 community groups using social ecology methods of observation, discursive analysis, and photo-narrative mapping. This publication includes findings associated with research conducted in the first year of the multi-year study. One of the findings was that after 9-11, communities needed space: space to create, space to teach, space to restore, space to create a locus of control. These social motivations formed the basis of patterned human responses observed throughout the nation. A site typology emerged adhering to specific forms and functions that often reflected a variance in attitudes, beliefs, and social networks. The Authors ERIKA SVENDSEN has a M.E.S. from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is a research planner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station in New York, NY. LINDSAY CAMPBELL has a B.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, focusing in sociology with a certificate in Environmental Studies. She is a community planning technician with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station in New York, NY. Northeastern Research Station Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry Published by: For additional copies: USDA FOREST SERVICE USDA Forest Service 11 CAMPUS BLVD SUITE 200 Publications Distribution NEWTOWN SQUARE PA 19073-3294 359 Main Road Delaware, OH 43015-8640 September 2005 Fax: (740)368-0152 Visit our homepage at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ne Contents Foreword ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 Project Map ................................................................................................................................. 7 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Project Results ........................................................................................................................ 15 USDA Forest Service Project Narratives .......................................................................... 35 An American Remembrance, Manalapan, NJ ......................................................................... 36 Celebration of Life – Walkway of Remembrance, Ramapo, NY .............................................. 38 Clarkstown American Patriot Garden, Clarkstown, NY .......................................................... 40 Cold Spring American Patriot Garden, Cold Spring, NY ........................................................ 42 Connecticut’s 9-11 Living Memorial, Westport, CT ............................................................... 44 Eisenhower Park American Patriot Garden, East Meadow, NY ............................................... 46 Garden of Healing, Staten Island, NY .....................................................................................48 Garrison School, Garrison, NY ...............................................................................................51 Grove of Healing, Brooklyn, NY ............................................................................................ 53 Grove of Healing, Staten Island, NY ....................................................................................... 55 Grove of Remembrance, Jersey City, NJ ................................................................................. 58 Harmony Grove Peace Walk and Labyrinth, Bronx, NY ......................................................... 61 Haverstraw American Patriot Garden, Rockland County, NY ................................................ 63 Healing Garden, Staten Island, NY .........................................................................................65 The Healing Trees Project, Yonkers, NY ..................................................................................68 Highlands American Patriot Garden, Highlands, NY ..............................................................70 Hoboken September 11th Memorial Tree Grove, Hoboken, NJ ..............................................72 The Legacy Groves of Somerset County, Somerset County, PA ...............................................74 Mahopac American Patriot Garden, Mahopac, NY .................................................................76 Marlboro Township Living Memorial, Marlboro Township, NJ .............................................. 78 Memorial of Remembrance, Long Hill, NJ .............................................................................80 Orangetown American Patriot Garden, Orangetown, NJ ........................................................82 Scarsdale American Legion Memorial Garden, Scarsdale, NY ................................................. 84 September 11th Memorial Grove, Brooklyn, NY .................................................................... 86 Sterling Forest Project, Orange County, NY ........................................................................... 89 Tree Planting in Highbridge Park to Honor the Victims of the September 11th World Trade Center Disaster, New York, NY ..................................................................... 92 Trees for Life and Unity Project, Bronx, NY ........................................................................... 94 Tribute Park, Rockaway Park, NY ...........................................................................................96 Washington D.C. Memorial Tree Grove Project, Washington, DC ..........................................997 WTC United Family Group Memorial, Essex County, NJ ....................................................101 Southern Region ................................................................................................................... 103 American Forests Memorial Tree Groves Campaign, Arlington County, VA ..........................103 Pentagon Memorial Project, Arlington, VA ........................................................................... 105 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 106 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 111 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ 112 Literature Cited ...................................................................................................................... 112 Appendix I: National Registry Questions ....................................................................... 115 Appendix II: Registry Statistics ......................................................................................... 117 Appendix III: Social and Site Observational Indices ................................................... 122 Foreword When a forest burns, the landscape shows its scars. Among the remains and smoking ground, it’s not uncommon to find a single stand of trees left untouched making one wonder why it was spared from the fire. The forest is alive. And indeed, it has a memory. Over time, some species will return to that same forest with renewed vigor and others will diminish slowly. It will not be the same forest, but it will be a forest nonetheless—a forest that adapted from the burn. Its resiliency depends on time and conditions before fire. Did disease and drought weaken it years ago? Was it rich with biodiversity? Was it a fragmented ecosystem or connected by corridors to other forest stands? These pre-existing conditions are important predictors of resiliency (Fig. 1). Figure 1.—Dying hemlocks and young tree at Sterling After September 11, 2001 (9-11) humans showed their Forest near Tuxedo, NY, summer 2002. scars. We mourned in public and in private silence. We called for acts of retribution and acts of love. Our deliberately sought to reconnect natural and human resiliency as a society may depend on our own pre-existing systems in attempts at recovery. The living memorials conditions. Have we experienced violence and trauma in are being documented over the course of 3 years and at the past? Are we struggling with issues of burden causing times may appear fragmented, decentralized and small,