Not even two bouts of Middletown snowstorms could keep science instructor Dan O’Connell’s Forestry and Wildlife students from cutting a new trail through the forest this winter. The path—the Tulip Trail—offers the community yet another opportunity to be reminded of what it means to be rooted, alive, and engaged in our wild and beautiful backyard.

The trail was laid by O’Connell and biology students Margret Adle ’27, Phoebe Fairbanks ’27, Anna Hogue ’27, Aaron Konkoly ’27, Selene Thomas ’27, Clara Toole ’28, and Kate Robbins ’27, who all rolled up their sleeves to rake and cut-down trees in the school’s New Forest area. Formerly part of the St. Andrew’s school farm, the New Forest is the result of the school’s 2008 decision to restore 109 farm acres to forest.

“The project is aligned with Forestry’s mission to enhance opportunities for community members to enjoy and explore our campus,” says O’Connell, P’19,’24. “Although it might seem ‘wrong’ for a group of tree huggers to be cutting down trees, the existing density of trees in the New Forest is greater than can be sustained.” The reason, he notes, is that young trees in the New Forest are dying, having lost the cutthroat competition for sunlight. 

“As we cut our way through the forest, we tried to route the trail through areas that needed to be thinned, or that harbored disfavored plant species, like Autumn Olive and Tree of Heaven,” says O’Connell. The trail the students created is unlike any other on campus: it’s shady, narrow, and peacefully meandering. “We hope the new trail will put visitors into closer touch with the trees and other living things that make the New Forest a unique campus environment,” O’Connell says.

“I love spending time outside, and I think it really helps balance out my day,” says Konkoly of why he felt pulled to the work. “Part of why I came to St. Andrew's was because we're surrounded by so much nature, and I love to explore it. This trail gives me and our community a chance to explore even more.”

Like all things at SAS, the project was bigger than the people doing the work; reminders of the trail belonging to all were plentiful. "At one point, members of the cross-country team ran through, and we talked to them about the trail," Konkoly says. "They told us what they liked, what they didn't, so we were thinking about the curves in the trail and ensuring they weren't too sudden so people could walk, bike, and run through it." The considerations extended to the forest creatures, too. After finding a dormant turtle, Konkoly recounts researching brumation, a hibernation-like state for reptiles, to help students ensure the animal's safety during the work.

The students named The Tulip Trail as such after noticing the abundance of Liriodendron tulipifera, the tulip poplar tree. Tulip poplars are the tallest trees in the eastern United States. They feed birds, bees, and other insects with the nectar from their tulip-shaped flowers. Historically, Native peoples used the massive trunks to build dugout canoes.

As the students were getting their hands dirty, they were locked into their thirst for scientific inquiry, too, when they noticed an intriguing pattern in the New Forest. “Moving from the north end of the Tulip Trail to the south, the forest shifts from being dominated by tulip poplars to being dominated by American sycamores,” O’Connell says. “At the south end of the Tulip Trail, you might notice a single mature sycamore growing. It seems likely that this tree is the alma mater—‘nourishing mother’—of tens of thousands of young sycamores now thriving in the New Forest.”

When you visit the trail, the students who laid it implore you to seek out this powerful tree for a quiet moment of reflection and wonder: “What can this tree teach us about the potential impact of one person—or one school?”