We are not simply replanting a tree canopy. We are creating a true arboretum, citywide.
Mission & History
Our Mission
The Newport Tree Conservancy is dedicated to fostering a healthy growing urban forest in the City of Newport, Rhode Island through a permanent tree management and planting program, for the benefit of present and future citizens of Newport.
Our Goals
To engage in public education regarding the importance of trees and improved planting and maintenance techniques
To assist in the inventorying and evaluation of Newport’s urban forest and the development of a plan of action
To assist in the development of funding, public and private, to achieve these goals
Our History
The Newport Tree Conservancy was founded as the Newport Tree Society in 1987 when concerned citizens recognized the fact that our once-legendary urban forest was clearly aging and ailing.
Since then, we have:
Formed the Newport Tree Commission, a City of Newport entity, now the Newport Tree & Open Space Commission
Advocated for the establishment of Newport’s Tree Protection Ordinance
Negotiated the hiring of an accredited arborist as Newport Tree Warden
Planted thousands of trees through new planting programs
Qualified Newport to become the second city in the state designated a "Tree City USA."
Established The Newport Arboretum, New England's first citywide arboretum.
Guided various Aquidneck Island Arboreta through the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation process.
Since 2017 subsidized EVERY tree planted in Newport's public spaces, parks and streets (no City funding is allocated for these trees).
Established our Volunteer Corps to manage the care of all newly planted trees in Newport's public spaces.
Increased Newport's tree canopy coverage.
Engaged Newporters in replanting their urban forest.
Led the effort to create a Newport Tree, Parks & Open Space Master Plan.
Established the Heritage Tree Center, our teaching nursery at Rogers High School.
In 2018 installed a new grove of 30 native trees in Miantonomi Park in collaboration with the Pell School, HEZ, and the Newport Division of Parks & Forestry. In 2019 we planted 30 more trees in the Park, and we have secured funding to plant another 50 trees and increase engagement with the community. This forest restoration addresses the inequitable proportion of neighborhood park amenities, green space and tree canopy in Newport's North End, as described in the Tree, Park & Open Space Master Plan.
In 2017, the Newport Tree Conservancy established the Heritage Tree Center in partnership with Rogers High School and The Newport Project. The Heritage Tree Center is an emerging resource for the study, protection and propagation of some of Rhode Island’s most unique, historic, and at-risk heritage trees.
Heritage Horticulture
The heart of Conservancy’s reforestation plan lies in heritage horticulture, the celebration of our city’s long history of exploratory arboriculture and its remaining core of historic designed landscapes and plant collections.
From handwritten records of expansive colonial-era hothouses that held specimens from all over the globe, to the scores of Gilded Age landscapes still in cultivation on our island today, Newport is a truly a jewel of American horticulture and landscape architecture. Our goal is to remember and reignite our once burning passion for sylviculture by reforesting all four corners of our city with truly special specimen trees planted by private citizens on both public and private property.
In Newport, we are not simply replanting a tree canopy. We are creating a true arboretum, citywide.
During the Gilded Age, our predecessors planted for the thrill of experiencing for the first time the full range of flora the natural world had to offer. Today, our goals are multi-faceted, complex, and interrelated. Property owners, professionals, students, and citizens are working with us to:
bring to life Newport’s singular history as a center for exploratory horticulture and landscape architecture,
increase our forest’s health and resiliency in the face of climate change, habitat loss, and invasive pests that have decimated American forests,
contribute to the global effort to restore the declining genetic stock of endangered species,
partner with all those working to restore remaining areas of natural forest on our island that have the potential to be rich reservoirs of life,
engage Newport’s youth, introducing them to vibrant, challenging careers and connecting them with the greater community.
Ultimately, we are all working together create a true City of Arboreta with collections of great scope and depth — and to do so by designing and implementing sustainable processes that may one day be modeled by communities across the globe.
Beatrix Farrand, one of America’s most highly esteemed landscape architects who spent summers at her grandmother’s Newport estate, Pencraig (along with her aunt, Edith Wharton) and studied under the direct tutelage of Arnold Arboretum Director, Charles Sprague Sargent.