How to Kill a Tree
12:00 PM

Join the Bayard Cutting Arboretum Education Team and learn what to do and what not to do when planting trees at home.

It's NOT a Pine!
10:30 AM

Join Carol Isles and learn the difference between common conifers in this guessing game.

Your Name as a Forest   
Presented by Carol Isles

Crack a secret code and take home your name written with trees

Bring Home a Sapling   
Donated by Bartlett Tree Experts

Choose from a selection of saplings to raise at home.

If You Give A Tree A Cookie
Presented by the BCA Education Team

Discover the age of trees in this arts and crafts activity.

Visitor Center

Watercolors

Coastal ecosystems provide critical breeding, feeding, and resting habitat for a variety of birds and other species. These habitats also protect communities from storm surge and improve water quality. Despite their importance, humans have altered and degraded our coastlines for decades, impacting ecosystem function and threatening community safety. Currently, coastal habitats face even greater threats from the impacts of sea level rise. Implementing habitat restoration and living shoreline projects can restore ecosystem function and improve coastal resiliency. This presentation will highlight the value of our coastal habitat and provide examples of how to increase coastal resilience along our shorelines.

Methods for restoring salt marshes on the east coast of the US have necessarily focused on planting the dominant ecosystem engineer, Smooth cordgrass (Sporobolus alterniflorus). While this approach has proven mostly successful, recent advances in our understanding of intra and interspecific facilitation within and between dominant marsh species, including plants and bivalves, have hinted at new opportunities to refine our approach. This presentation will explore various innovative planting methods being tested including the incorporation of hatchery reared mussels to enhance marsh grass plantings. Attendees will gain insight into these new approaches that promise to revolutionize coastal habitat restoration.

Bayard Cutting Arboretum spans over one and a half miles of coastline along the Connetquot River. Rising tides and frequent flooding have been ongoing problems for the Arboretum over the last ten years. This presentation will be conducted as an educational walking tour (.5 mile), focusing on the critical issues impacting the coastline today.

Planting on shorelines and in coastal gardens presents unique challenges. Native coastal plants are adapted to the combination stresses of salt, sun, wind, flooding, and drought, while protecting shorelines from erosion and offering habitat to wildlife. Walk through a selection of native shoreline plants, from beach plum to Spartina, to help pick the right plant for this particular and spectacular ecosystem.

Salt stress is an increasingly common challenge for trees in urban and roadside environments throughout the US, driven by de-icing practices, irrigation with saline water, and soil contamination. Elevated salt levels disrupt water uptake, impair physiological processes, and lead to decline or mortality in sensitive species. This presentation will explore factors contributing to salt tolerance in trees. These factors provide a framework for future tree selection aimed at resilience to extreme salt conditions. Attendees will gain actionable insights to mitigate salt damage and promote tree resilience in landscapes under challenging salinity conditions.

Extension Entomologist, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County

We are often tasked with building landscapes that appear mature upon installation, changing minimally: a “perpetually picture-perfect” manicured aesthetic. However, the healthiest landscapes see a lot of evolution! Resilient and diverse plant communities start small, develop through ecological succession, and see dramatic transformations over time. We can design our landscapes and gardens as dynamic, changing plant communities. Utilizing native plants’ natural life spans and life cycles can reduce maintenance, undermine invasives, and maximize seasonal interest. By modeling our landscapes on dynamic natural systems, we can better plan their lush futures, and enjoy the wonder of their evolution along the way.

Infrastructure, budgets, and nursery availability all guide designers as they look to reach their project goals. With the added volatility of climate and frequency of storms designers must use all the tools at their disposal to achieve sites that are beautiful and successful. Sometimes project sites require wholesale reconstruction and elements like suspended pavements can ensure sufficient soil volume for trees long term success. Other times site constraints restrict soil volumes or create exaggerated microclimates that require thoughtful adjustments to a planting palette. How far can a site be altered to accommodate a desired plant list? Should we instead be planting for the sites we are given? James will share select sites from the past decade of work in and around New York City and highlight the tools he and his colleagues have developed to cope with some of the most challenging projects they have faced.

8:30A | Welcome

Opening remarks will be made by Doreen M. Monteleone Ph.D., Arboretum Liaison, Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society and Kevin Wiecks, Director, Bayard Cutting Arboretum.

Sales & Purchasing Manager, Half Hollow Nursery


Natural Heritage Trust

New York State Parks

Let's Connect!

Like us on Facebook @BayardCuttingArboretum

For additional details, contact
Kevin Wiecks or
Doreen Monteleone.

We are located at
440 Montauk Highway
Great River, NY 11739.

8:30A | Welcome

Opening remarks will be made by Doreen M. Monteleone Ph.D., Arboretum Liaison, Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society and Kevin Wiecks, Director, Bayard Cutting Arboretum.

Doreen Monteleone, Ph.D. is president of Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society. She is a Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener and a regular volunteer at the Arboretum. Her professional career began with a doctorate in Coastal Oceanography, but for more than twenty years she has focused on environmental and sustainability issues in manufacturing industries. She is one of the founders of and serves on the Board of Directors for the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership, the leading non-profit accreditation organization that promotes sustainability in the North American printing industry. Dr. Monteleone is an award-winning author and has published more than sixty articles, with ten in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and contributed to five books on environmental issues and sustainability. Her passion for gardening and sustainable practices makes Doreen consider herself an all-around “treehugger.”

Doreen M. Monteleone, Ph.D., Symposium Chair, Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society

Jessica O’Callahan, Grounds Supervisor, Bayard Cutting Arboretum

2:30P | Refreshment Break

Upper Carriage House

Mark Lesser, Ph.D., Associate Professor Ecology, State University of New York Plattsburgh

12:15P | Lunch Break

Lower Carriage House, Conifer Garden Tour (weather permitting)

Brian Kelley, Founder and Archivist, Gathering Growth

10:45A | Refreshment Break

Upper Carriage House

Whitney Lewis, Local Manager, Bartlett Tree Experts

8:00A | Registration and Refreshments

Upper Carriage House

William Bryant Logan, Founder, Urban Arborists & Visiting Professor, Pratt Institute

Kevin Wiecks, Director, Bayard Cutting Arboretum & Doreen M. Monteleone, Ph.D. Symposium Chair, Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society

Plant Pathologist and Research Scientist, Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories

Former Executive Director, Bayard Cutting Arboretum


Director, Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park

Director, Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Past-President, Bayard Cutting Arboretum Horticultural Society

Open Tuesday- Sunday

9:00AM – 4:00PM

Find out more about the events happening around the Arboretum.

VUF is $8 per vehicle is collected from April - November using the automated-pay meters.

Seniors (62+) placard and access passes can now be obtained at any of our parking kiosks!

We are located at 440 Montauk Highway Great River, NY 11739.