Boston Flora

Tag: Tom Zetterstrom

  • Saturday, October 8, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Protecting Specimen Trees and Standing Forests from Asiatic Bittersweet

    Bittersweet, the tree-killing vine, can undo a century of forest succession in a generation by strangling, encapsulating, and collapsing trees, resulting in dramatic reduction of carbon sequestration and eco-system services. Learn how land trusts, parks and campuses are efficiently and effectively defeating invasive vines and shrubs, maintaining trails and restoring inherent beauty and balance to natural areas. This Berkshire Botanical Garden talk will take place October 8 from 11 – 1 at the Garden in West Stockbridge.

    Tom Zetterstrom’s photographic record reveals a changing landscape impacted by species decline, alien plant invasion and forest collapse. In these talks he will describe projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts that have protected trees in natural and community forests. In 1999 he co-founded Elm Watch. Tom received the 2011 Public Awareness of Trees award from the National Arbor Day Foundation and the 2013 Connecticut Urban Forest Council’s meritorious service award for efforts “to educate and promote positive change regarding trees and plants.” He is recognized for his Portraits of America Trees exhibition and his photographs are in the collections of 43 museums nationally.

    $10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/protecting-specimen-trees-and-standing-forests-asiatic-bittersweet

  • Saturday, October 2, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm – History and Preservation of the American Elm in New England

    Tom Zetterstrom initiated Elm Watch in 1999 to protect the Baldwin Hill Elm from the threat of Dutch elm disease, and launched a regional effort with Tim Abbott of The Nature Conservancy to “adopt” specimen elms in our tri-state region. Several of these elms remain on the landscape. National Arboretum research on disease resistant elm cultivars in 2001 prompted elm restoration nationally. Learn what elm cultivars performed well and how to reduce the risk of Dutch elm disease.

    Tom Zetterstrom’s photographic record reveals a changing landscape impacted by species decline, alien plant invasion and forest collapse. In these talks he will describe projects in Connecticut and Massachusetts that have protected trees in natural and community forests. In 1999 he co-founded Elm Watch. Tom received the 2011 Public Awareness of Trees award from the national Arbor Day Foundation, and the 2013 Connecticut Urban forest Council’s meritorious service award for efforts “to educate and promote positive change regarding trees and plants.” He is recognized for his Portraits of America Trees exhibition and his photographs are in the collections of 43 museums nationally.

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden talk will be held October 2 at 3:30 pm at the Garden. BBG members $10, nonmembers $15. Advanced registration requested at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/history-and-preservation-american-elm-new-england

  • Friday, September 17, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Portraits of American Trees Gallery Reception

    Fine arts photographer Tom Zetterstrom will exhibit three-dozen gelatin silver prints from his Portraits of American Trees portfolio at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Leonhardt Galleries, during September and October, with an opening reception scheduled for September 17, 5-7 p.m. 

    Zetterstrom’s photographs are represented in the collections of over 40 museums nationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and in the Library of Congress “Changing American Landscape” holdings, as well as in numerous private and corporate collections. 

    In his forty-year quest across North America, Zetterstrom has gathered images of innumerable species from a wide range of topographies and ecosystems. As forests ecosystems decline, he continues to search for the most memorable trees, those “curious survivors slowly rising like giants through the centuries”. 

    “Zetterstrom’s portraits of trees partake in a tradition whose roots lie deep in nineteenth-century photography and painting,” wrote Charles S. Moffett, former director of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. “(His) images reflect moods and ideas that are at least indirectly related to British and American Romantic traditions. He has both built a bridge to the past and created a body of work that fully reflects a particular late-twentieth century sensibility.”

    Gallery hours: Daily, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The exhibit runs through October 31.