PERMANENT-ENVIRONMENTAL-PUBLIC ART-CREATIVE CONSERVATION COLLABORATIVE-COMMISSION

TITLE: TBD: Laketree Meadow

COMMISSIONED BY: City of Burlington, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, Vermont

TEAM: Nancy Winship Milliken, Ben Graham, Industrial Four, Declan McCabe, Andrew Milliken

POLLINATOR HABITAT: Bee the Change

ENGINEER: John Higgins, Artisan Engineering

EXPECTED INSTALL DATE: Fall 2025

The design of the Main Street sculpture offers the opportunity to tell two stories. One looks back at the history of Burlington’s waterfront and the other looks forward towards the future health of the lake through sustainable forestry and management of Lake Champlain tributary watersheds. By restoring and maintaining riparian and floodplain forests and dead wood in the rivers and lake, these conservation efforts provide habitat, increase resilience to future floods, reduce nutrient input and improve water quality. The trees of Vermont have been a big part of the development of our cities and towns. Ultimately the stories are told through the history of the tree and the field plants in the installation.

In 1854, the railroad service reached Burlington and the lumber industry came to dominate Burlington’s waterfront, establishing the city as America’s third largest lumber port. By the end of the Civil War, Vermont was 80 percent deforested, soil erosion was contaminating waterways and reducing the populations of fish and wildlife. In response, Vermont’s Joseph Battell, Frederick Billings, William Seward Webb, and George Perkins Marsh created a conservation legacy in Vermont and beyond that has continued to the present day. The future health of our lake and by extension the Burlington community depends on learning from the past and supporting conservation, sustainable land use and stormwater mitigation efforts today.

TREE

Species: Black Locust

● Can resist rot for up to 100 years

● It is a new world tree, some of the most strong, rot-resistant, and durable wood we have

● It has regenerative qualities that help heal damaged ecosystems, is found on farm land and is considered an

invasive, introduced species

● Harvested from Saint Michael’s College where we will plant three native and diverse trees in its place

Form and treatment:

● The harvested tree will be partially limbed, debarked, carved and stained white. It will resemble driftwood

from the lake

● The roots will be preserved

Concepts:

● The whitened, organic and iconic form of tree in an elevated horizontal presentation offers concepts of floating

trees or driftwood on Lake Champlain and watershed rivers

● The white represents the limestone in the bedrock around the lake and references driftwood

● Reverence for trees is a main theme of the installation. The forests in Vermont, from the mountains, in the

floodplains to the lake are represented in this elevated driftwood tree

● This nature centric memorial cradles, honors, and evokes stories of the trees of Vermont

Scale:

● The 37-40 foot tree ensures a monumental installation that will be seen from distances. The height allows for

safety, and visibility for cars and viewers from Church street.

● The viewer’s perspective to trees changes when they can walk along the whole length of the installation

STEEL STRUCTURE

The steel structure was chosen for longevity and low maintenance and relates to the city infrastructure. The raw steel is powder coated clear. The minimal steel posts are designed to disappear, giving the appearance of a floating tree. It supports and cradles the tree above the viewer’s head.

SITE

This unique site has a black glass building at the end of the alcove which allows, when the leaves are down, a reflection of the whitened sculpture. A floating tree, ghostlike. The alcove also has a large live vertical tree which the horizontal tree bisects. The proximity of the live maple tree is important to the concepts of the installation.

LIGHTING

The tree will be lit at night by solar lights located on the ground. We would like to light up the signage as well. We would like the option of having electricity at the site in case of solar light failure as plants grow.

POLLINATOR HABITAT DESIGN

A variety of heights and colors of hardy pollinator friendly plants and shrubs will be installed into the 60’ long bed. There will be a large rock or two for the hardscape design. The interpretive sign will be located on the east end near the bench.

● Pollinator habitat does more than soften the transition between the hardscape and sculpture elements, it adds a dynamism- shifting in a day, and with the seasons, like the lake, constant motion in a static landscape.

● It brings upper and lower elements in relation as stalks and vines grow towards the tree. It improves water infiltration with deep rooted plants in the rainwater collection sites working towards a cleaner lake and adds diversity to this human dominated landscape with native plants, their blossoms nodding heavily with the visiting pollinators.

● The pollinator meadow provides a natural habitat and incorporates movement (from wind and pollinators), and seasonal change to a static sculpture. It brings color to the black and white steel structure and tree. The habitat also embraces the theme of reverence for the fields of Vermont and the importance pollinators have for ecosystems and agriculture.

● The design of the meadow creates an entrance (and exit) into the installation and slows the viewer down as they witness the plants, and pollinators below and the tree above.

● Viewers, exposed to the pollinators, leads to positive experiences and that could lead to engagement in conservation efforts

CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION EFFORTS

There are a number opportunities to extend the reach of the meadow and tree installation by interpreting and educating the public about historic landscape conservation efforts.

Conservation of riparian and floodplain forests and fields in tributary watersheds of Lake Champlain (and throughout Vermont) improve water quality, increase resilience to flooding, help mitigate climate change and restore and sustain diversity of plants, wildlife and fish (or biological diversity) through connecting networks of healthy lands and waters.

Environmental education opportunities

Referencing and interpreting the sculpture can enhance existing environmental education through various organizations and locations. The Resource Room at ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain (a short walk down Main Street to the lake) can reference the installation and interpret the importance of trees and fields in Lake Champlain's watersheds. Local schools could have science and art classes visit the site, discuss and learn. Tree planting events could reference this installation.

Signage and/or QR code at the site or website could describe conservation efforts that have happened and are ongoing in and around Burlington related to trees, fields and the watersheds of the lake.

Example organizations and agencies that could be linked to that are involved in restoring and conserving forests, floodplains, wetlands, and fields in tributary watersheds to Lake Champlain: Lake Champlain Basin Program, Lake Champlain Committee, Winooski Natural Resource District, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Citizens Advisory Committee for Lake Champlain, The Nature Conservancy, Vermont Land Trust, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service and others.