Cornell Cooperative Extension Partners with White Plains Community to Establish Living Tribute to Ezra Cornell
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County has partnered with Cornell University alumna Elisabeth Radow (’78), American Chestnut Foundation President and Cornell alumni Marshal Case (’64), and the City of White Plains to initiate a community-based research and educational program designed to help restore the American chestnut tree to New York State.
The centerpiece of the program is a twelve-foot American chestnut planted in honor of Ezra Cornell in White Plains, New York, in J. Harvey Turnure Memorial Park. With a hearty, 3,000-pound mass of roots, the chestnut will be a subject in an ongoing American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) effort to develop blight resistant characteristics in the American chestnut variety.
At a commemoration ceremony on April 24, the Westchester County community honored Ezra Cornell’s vision, legacy, and dedication to the pursuit of hands-on, practical knowledge embodied in Cornell University’s land grant mission. January 11, 2007, marked the 200th anniversary of Cornell’s birth. 
Through research and breeding, the ACF works to restore the American chestnut tree to the northeastern United States. The tree has been endangered from chestnut blight, a lethal fungus infestation, since the early part of the 20th century. Chestnut blight not only altered the landscape of the region’s woodlands but also severely impacted rural economies, which depended on the American chestnut’s nut and lumber harvests.
The foundation estimates that before the blight, 4 billion chestnut trees covered 200 million acres of woodlands.
Placed on a select spot overlooking the children’s playground in Turnure Park, an arboreal park in the City of White Plains, the tree is perhaps situated less than 30 miles north of Ezra Cornell’s birthplace in Westchester Landing, New York (now known as the Bronx).
“This tree represents how positive forces can bring people together,” said Elisabeth Radow. Radow initiated the partnership to establish a living tribute to Ezra Cornell and acted as co-sponsor with the American Chestnut Foundation to bring the Virginia-born American chestnut tree to White Plains. The tree is a product of the foundation’s blight-resistant breeding program.
Through a community-based partnership, four White Plains employees will help Cornell Cooperative Extension monitor the tree, said Barbara Sacks, Executive Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County. The employees are graduates of CCE of Westchester County’s Certified Tree Steward Program, established in 2006 to train public employees in the departments of public works, highways, and parks in the proper siting and care of urban trees. More than 40 Westchester County employees have participated in the tree steward program, which ensures the future of Westchester County’s public street and parks trees.
“The American Chestnut Foundation is proud to be providing an American chestnut tree in honor of Ezra Cornell, founder of my alma mater,” said Marshal Case. “We are pleased that students in the area will be able to learn more about the American chestnut and the importance of restoring it to its native range.”
“This special tree will provide beauty as well as education for local residents,” said White Plains Mayor Joseph M. Delfino. In addition to caring for and maintaining the chestnut, Cornell Cooperative Extension will work with the White Plains community to educate the Westchester County population, particularly its young people, about the American chestnut.
A three-panel exhibition donated by the ACF and installed near the chestnut tree explains the history and importance of the variety. The panels are designed to educate visitors to the park. “Thousands of people visit the park every year,” said Sacks. “The tree will be widely viewed.”
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County uses the American Chestnut Foundation’s Charlie Chestnut Environmental Education Program, an online, interdisciplinary resource, to teach Westchester County youngsters about the American chestnut tree. As trained arboriculture staff studies and cares for the tree, the program will provide a living example of real-world problem solving central to Cornell Cooperative Extension’s mission.
Since the Cornell Cooperative Extension American chestnut program partnership began, other Westchester County organizations have become interested in planting two smaller chestnut trees in the community, said Sacks.