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Poland Seminary High School students help village return to its roots
POLAND
Trees – old, majestic, towering – dot the rolling hills and sprawling lawn that comprise the village green.
For most of the year, they burst through in lush colors, and in winter, their bare arms overshadow children who slide down the green’s hills on their sleds.
On Wednesday the shady collection got a new member: a tulip poplar tree.
A group of Poland Seminary High School students – members of the science club’s “tree team” – planted the tree, a species that is native to this area and likely would have been familiar to settlers of the Connecticut Western Reserve.
Tulip poplars also are known for being among the tree species planted by President George Washington at his home in Virginia.
The selection was no coincidence; students researched, and based their project on a list of native plant species compiled by Turhand Kirtland, an early area settler who donated to the village the land that today is the green.
“We thought it was important to preserve the natural beauty of Poland Village,” said Beth Queen, head of the high-school science department.
She said the project also helps add to the community’s plant diversity, another science club goal.
Students came up with a list of choices, and the final selection was made by members of the Samuel K. Hine Fund board, which maintains the village green and paid for the planting.
One of Queen’s former students who spearheaded the project joined the science club at the event Wednesday.
Anthony Lattanzio, now a first-year student at Youngstown State University, explained the project’s origins.
Queen brought them the idea, he said, but the group eagerly latched onto it.
Lattanzio in particular was intrigued; he already knew who Kirtland was, because Kirtland’s former home is near his.
“It was really cool to bring back that historical significance,” he said. “I love the village.”