Making a Difference, One Tree at a Time

The unassuming wooden bench between Hereford Street and Commonwealth Avenue provides rest for the weary or a break after a stroll. It is an ideal place for reading and people-watching. Even with traffic on all sides, there is something serene and peaceful about this place. People walk their dogs and usually go right past the bench. Stella Trafford's bench sits in the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, a stretch of trees from part of Arlington Street to Charlesgate East, just west of Massachusetts Avenue. Memorial benches like Trafford's can be donated by a friend or relative and they're not cheap at $4,000 each. Most are dedicated to someone who took a great interest in, or was fond of, the Mall.

Pedestrians may not know Trafford, originally from Mississippi and until recently a resident of Hereford Street. And Trafford, now in her mid-90s, is credited with keeping the majestic tree-lined esplanade alive. So, three neighborhood organizations - the Back Bay Garden Club, NABB, and the Friends of Public Garden, all chipped in to show their appreciation.

For many years, Trafford nursed the grove of trees back to health by injecting them with fungicide. This is how Trafford describes her treatments:
"When we first learned to pump vaccine against the Dutch elm disease into the veins of the old standing elms, you had to fasten the tubes to the pump and to a pipe that had outlets that you stuck into the tree. We were instructed by the tree specialist who had a good reputation [who] came through the auspices of the federal government. I went to Washington to meet the fellow who was in charge of researching the plight of the Dutch elms. They had experimented around Washington to find out how much serum to inject and the best season."

But Trafford said she wasn't sure her work would pay off.

"It took forever and was heartbreaking," Trafford said. "You never knew if you were doing the right thing."

Trafford first learned about elm trees when she lived in New Hampshire. There was a row of trees near her house. All but one of them died of Dutch elm disease. And the lone survivor is still there, Trafford said. That experience was enough for her to become a savior of the trees of Commonwealth Mall when she moved to Boston.

"Trees were dying all over the United States, and the Mall looked terrible without these stately trees," she said. "The New England Elm is the most beautiful - water is the main problem. They have a tap root that will go down a quarter of a mile. The elm beetle struck and trees were affected everywhere."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Dutch elm disease probably originated in Asia and came to the U.S. in Cleveland during the 1930s. By the 1980s, the USDA estimates, the bark beetle had destroyed 77 million elms throughout the U.S. Trafford began her work in 1967, according to former Councilor Thomas M. Keane, who served the Back Bay from 1993 to 1999. Keane wrote about Trafford in 1994.

Ned Tisserat, a professor of plant pathology from Colorado State University, said the bark beetle carries the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease.

"The time from infection to tree death may occur in a matter of weeks or months," he wrote in an e-mail.

Trafford told her neighbors about the elms dying and asked for donations. She also got assistance from researchers who were studying the disease in Washington, DC and at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Trafford and her husband used to have a yellow Volkswagen bug convertible that they would carry the equipment - a bicycle pump - and the serum for the trees, said Jackie Yessian, current chair of NABB, who has known Trafford for more than 10 years.
"They could not get a new car because they needed this one so the top would come down to reach everything for the trees," Yessian said.

According to Brad Mitchell, director of biosecurity and regulatory services for the Massachusetts Pesticide Board, there are two ways to treat Dutch elm disease: by spraying the pesticide on the base of the tree, or do what Trafford did - inject the trees.
"With the high-end trees they have an annual fungicide once a year. That's my understanding," Mitchell said.

Most of the trees are elm trees, but the mall today also includes other species. And the Commonwealth Avenue Mall is now cared for by the Boston Parks Department, with help from the Commonwealth Avenue Mall committee.

Margaret Pokorny, the committee chairperson, was very supportive of her former neighbor who lived just two doors down
"She's an amazing person," Pokorny said. "She was the one that started the whole restoration project. If she hadn't stuck with it for 35 years the mall would not look like it does today."

Yessian added that what she finds remarkable is Trafford's humility about her accomplishments -understated just like the bench on Commonwealth Avenue.
"She's someone that's done an awful lot but she doesn't draw credit," Yessian said. "She's happy with the results and the people that have worked with her.