LEWISTON — Community fruit orchards in the Twin Cities have a new caretaker and a promising spring ahead.
Sean O’Connell, a community tree steward serving with Maine Conservation Corps, is set to lead free fruit tree care workshops and orchard maintenance days in Lewiston-Auburn schools. O’Connell plans to build an arboretum in one of the eight L-A orchards before he wraps up his term in November.
“I got the privilege of coming here and advocating for school orchards, for the trees themselves, and the people that take care of them,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell has a plan to make the most of the seasons and his tenure. “In late winter, there isn’t very much green at all but we get to do late-winter maintenance,” O’Connell said. “We start shaping and pruning them now.”
“In a month or two, when the spring comes out, we have some more maintenance to do. At that point, I’m hoping to have more specific workshops on how to identify the fruit trees, how to keep an eye out for pests, how to manage pollinators, basically everything that goes into seeing a tree bear fruit,” O’Connell explained.
“Summer and fall bring their own maintenance needs and my intention is to have a set of workshops for each season,” he continued.
O’Connell wants his workshops to simplify orchard care for folks who might find it daunting. “Hopefully, I’ll have the same youth and adult groups throughout the year, so they get a coherent education,” he said.
“Pruning is definitely something that a lot of people say they can’t do, but once they learn to do it, they realize there’s not much to it,” he added. “Once they do it, it’ll be a skill they’ll have forever.”
O’Connell is hosted by ReTreeUS, a nonprofit that plants educational orchards and food forests throughout New England, and St. Mary’s Nutrition Center in Lewiston.
“ReTreeUS plants the orchards, usually with local stakeholders, either students or community groups or even business groups, and then they provide for the ongoing maintenance of the orchard, which I think is the more important part,” O’Connell said. “Because anybody could plant a tree, but making sure that tree is good over the next 10 years, that’s the hard part.”
Auburn Middle School and Park Avenue Elementary, both in Auburn, and Robert V. Connors Elementary, Raymond A. Geiger Elementary, both in Lewiston, and Margaret Murphy Centers for Children in Auburn and Lewiston, are among the schools participating in the stewardship program. Teisha’s Orchard between Connors Elementary and Lewiston High School is another one of the locations.
For more information about plantings, workshops and community events in the L-A area, email [email protected].