Project Elm is a grassroots community project intending to help restore the beauty of Rockport while taking a proactive step to help reverse global climate change. Scientists tell us that one of the best ways to fight climate change is to plant more trees--1 trillion trees, in fact. The Town of Rockport was once populated with hundreds and hundreds of towering, beautiful elm trees the graced nearly every street with as many as a dozen per block! Sadly, the onset of Dutch Elm Disease in the 1950s brought an abrupt end to elms in the United States until only recently. Scientists have now developed disease resistant cultivars of the elm tree that are thriving in the US and, in particular, in New England.

Project Elm will use the $1,000 grant to purchase 44 elm trees from a qualified nursery and invite Rockport homeowners to apply for them for free, or buy them at cost from the group so that additional trees may be purchased. Project Elm has numerous volunteers ready to assist home owners to plant the 2'-4' sapling trees with the only requirement being that the tree is planted on a street facing side of their property in order to allow for the return of Rockport's tree covered landscape of 80'-90'full grown elms..

In case you are not familiar with Rockport, Massachusetts, it is a town that is uniquely quaint and community-centric. From long time residents and descendants of original settlers to recent arrivals, Rockporters share a love of this gorgeous seaside community and are enthusiastic about its preservation. We believe that this project will be very well received and will lead to additional donations from residents to help us broaden the effort to purchase more elm trees and continue to restore Rockport's long lost elm landscape.