Class News

Chris Getman ’64 heralds URI milestone of 10,000 trees planted

May 13, 2022

Chris Getman ’64 reports that on May 13-14, the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) celebrated its 10,000th tree planted in New Haven! Taking place in Quinnipiac River Park, the celebration included tree plantings, a musical celebration, and an awards ceremony. This event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Green Fund. The Class of 1964 can be proud of its multiyear contributions to URI.

URI, an organization under Yale's School of the Environment, started in New Haven in 1991. The organization works with local teens, Yale interns, people transitioning out of prison through EMERGE Connecticut, and other community stewards to plant trees and install water-filtering bioswales throughout the city's parks, schoolyards, and streets. Residents are able to request a free tree from the organization as long as they pledge to care for it. New Haven has 3,200 "tree adopters," according to Colleen Murphy-Dunning, URI's director, who ran Friday's program with an unwavering smile. The organization aims to tackle large-scale environmental challenges on a hyper-local level, tree by tree. As two-year intern and local climate organizer Adrian Huq noted, "Deforestation, right after fossil fuels, is a top contributor of greenhouse gases."