For years, forestry students at Yale have been planting evergreens in the Christmas tree farm at Yale-Myers with the knowledge that students of the future will harvest them for the annual holiday tree sale—and will plant more for the students who will succeed them.
The Yale Temperate Forestry student group fully resumed their Christmas tree harvest, retreat, and sale after pandemic related restrictions in recent years. In early December 2022, students braved the rain to harvest trees from the field, gather mountain laurel in the forest, and create wreaths during their overnight retreat at Yale-Myers Forest. Here is what the process looked like this year.
Students choose each tree to cut based off of shape and size. Each tree is sold by the foot. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Jung ‘24 MF.
Chainsaw certified students then cut the selected trees. Photo courtesy of Alice Gerow ‘24 MF.
Students then bale the trees to contain and protect their limbs and load them into a truck to drive them down to Marsh Hall. Photos courtesy of Amelia Napper ‘24 MF and Alice Gerow ‘24 MF.
Meanwhile, another group of students collect mountain laurel foliage from the forest to create handmade wreathes. Photos courtesy of Yeim We ‘24 MFS and Gracie Bachmann ‘23 MF.
Once they finished the outdoor work, the students took refuge from the rain inside camp. As a community, they organized the mountain laurel foliage and set up wreath-making stations as part of their overnight retreat. Photos courtesy of Alice Gerow ‘24 MF, Gracie Bachmann ‘23 MF, and Yeim We ‘24 MFS.
The following week, Yale Temperate Foresters held their holiday wreath and tree sale on the Marsh Hall porch to cultivate holiday cheer in New Haven and to support YTF’s activities, including student participation in the Society of American Foresters’ annual convention.
