When Yale undergrad Griffin Collier approached Hull Forest Products about the possibility of donating lumber for the Yale Treehouse Project, we were excited to be able to help him reach his goal of building an arboreal retreat for recreation and wildlife viewing. The treehouse project was begun when Collier, inspired by the feelings that treehouses evoke, decided to create one for the entire Yale community. Collier used Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects, to raise over $10,000 for the project.
Located along the Branch Brook Trail just a short walk from base camp at Yale-Myers, the Yale treehouse will soon be built in an old Sugar Maple whose low spreading limbs provide an ideal embrace. Hull Forest Products is supplying kiln dried Sassasfras lumber at cost for the construction of the treehouse. The structure may well draw more Yale students to the forest, particularly ones outside the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies who might not otherwise have reason to visit. And in our opinion, anytime you can bring people into nature, it’s a good thing.
Our Myers Pond Forest , which is under conservation easement to the Nature Conservancy, abuts the Yale-Myers Forest and is the only private inholding within Yale-Myers. This property was where the summer home of Yale forest founder George Hewitt Myers once stood. Myers, who told Yale Forest head David Smith, “I wanted to be able to stand on top of a hill and own all the land, as far as I could see”, would no doubt have appreciated the vantage point the Yale treehouse will offer.
