The University of Connecticut is planning to build a golf facility over the existing UConn Conifer Collection, which holds the largest collection of witch's broom dwarf conifers in North America.
PETITION: https://www.change.org/SaveUConifers
PROTEST: Wed 4/29 11 AM @ Fairfield Way (UConn Storrs Campus)
Sidney Waxman's Conifer Collection
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
The university released a scoping notice on December 16, 2025 and gave the public only one month to submit statements regarding the building of the UConn golf facility and required advanced registration for participation in the meeting. Now, UConn intends to use $1 million of a $15 million donation to remove the UConn Conifer Collection at 986 Storrs Rd and build a golf practice facility. While the UConn golf team deserves a place to practice, destroying a unique collection cultivated by the late Sidney Waxman, an award-winning horticulturist and Professor of Ornamental Horticulture at UConn for over thirty years, is not the way to go. The New York Botanical Garden, which holds the largest collection of plant and fungal specimens in the Western Hemisphere, has a collection of plants donated by and dedicated to Sydney Waxman, highlighting the global importance of his work.
In addition to the loss of the Waxman Conifer Collection, the proposed golf facility is located in a rural residential neighborhood with well-documented water issues. The majority of residences on East Road are downhill from the proposed golf facility, in an area with considerable wetlands. Ten years ago, a development proposed on East Road was reviewed by environmental engineers, soil scientists, and hydrologists. These experts found that the area downslope from the proposed facility has two unique features: a very high-perched water table that hinders surface water from draining, and abundant natural springs that unpredictably emerge from the surface and expel water onto the land. When these conditions are combined, the soil struggles to absorb excess water. The loss of seven acres of Waxman’s trees and a portion of the abutting forest will remove the root systems and dislodge the soil, leaving the water and silt with nowhere to go but downhill toward residences into soil that cannot absorb it, potentially carrying pesticides and herbicides into wells and drinking water.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
Ian Dann, Project Manager. Sean Vasington, Director of Planning, Design & Construction. Dan Toscano, Board of Trustees Chair. Radenka Maric, UConn President. Katy Dykes, DEEP Commissioner. Patrick Boyd, Mansfield State Rep. Gregg Haddad, Mansfield State Rep.
LEARN MORE:
- Notice of Scoping for UConn Golf Practice Facility Project
- Golf facility proposed over UConn Conifer Collection - UConn Daily Campus
- Sidney Waxman, Innovator of Dwarf Pines, Dies at 81 - New York Times
- Conifers - UConn Magazine
- UConn plans golf practice facility in Mansfield neighborhood, drawing pushback from residents - WSFB Eyewitness News 3
- Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens Collection