Paul Cowie demonstrates proper pruning protocol while training Rutgers Master Gardeners.
Arborist Paul Cowie (CC ’85) and Jan Zientek (CC’82), senior program coordinator of Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Essex County, play key roles in maintaining the nation’s largest collection of flowering cherry trees in Essex County’s Branch Brook Park, leading a group of dedicated Rutgers Master Gardeners from Essex County. Branch Brook was the first county park in the nation, conceived by Frederick Law Olmsted, famous for his work on Central Park, and was designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm after he retired. The current collection of 4,300 trees, an expansion of the original 2,000 planted in the 1920s, is a testament to the efforts to restore the park to its former glory. Read more at Rutgers Today.
