Tree Lodi founder honored for working to make city green
Tree planting honors Joyce Harmon ahead of her retirement
Seven trees were planted at Henry Glaves Park on Saturday morning in honor of Tree Lodi founder Joyce Harmon ahead of her retirement from the group in honor of her hard work and dedication over the years. The trees were purchased by the City of Lodi and were planted by members of Tree Lodi.
“Tree Lodi has been a tremendous partner with the parks division,” Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Jeff Hood said. “They’ve provided us with hundreds of trees within the last decade and it’s only fitting that we take a moment to recognize her contribution to the city as well as the parks division.”
Lodi City Manager Steve Schwabauer agreed.
“Joyce had been coming to the city, looking to have the city take care of its trees and value its trees from the day I walked in the door working for the city,” Schwabauer said. “It’s great that Joyce worked so hard to hold the city accountable to care for its trees, but what’s really more amazing is that she went a step further and she actually took it upon herself and started taking actions to protect the trees with the formation of Tree Lodi. She’s a rare person who sees a need and doesn’t just call out the need, but actually mobilizes to create resources to address the need.”
According Tree Lodi President Steve Dutra, the grove is called Joyce’s Grove and Tree Lodi chose Henry Glaves Park because Harmon lives nearby and it would be easy for her to come out and enjoy her trees. She already had a memorial tree for her husband planted there as well.
Dutra said he and Harmon’s daughter, Nancy Mehlhaff, and her husband came up with the species list for Joyce’s Grove. Because Harmon is originally from Canada, an autumn blaze maple was one of the trees planted to symbolize the maple leaf that adorns the Canadian flag.
Harmon started Tree Lodi in 2005 and is currently its treasurer. With her 93rd birthday right around the corner, she has decided to retire from the organization.
“I do have some health problems that prevent me from doing as much as I’d like to do, and I think it is time for me to back away a little bit,” Harmon said
She hopes to work behind the scenes doing things she can do from home like gathering volunteers for projects.
Tree Lodi all started when mistletoe began to take over the city’s trees and Harmon searched for ways to solve the problem.
“She felt like she needed to do something about it so she assembled a number of us back then, including educators, existing and retiring teachers, a real-estate agent and landscape professionals,” Dutra said. “We started getting together and talking about how we could help the city with some of their tree concerns.”
She said in the beginning she was just trying to educate people about how much of a killer mistletoe is to the trees, but over time the focus shifted to tree planting and tree education. Over the years, Harmon said, Tree Lodi has planted more than 1,000 trees in Lodi with the help of several volunteers.
When she first started Tree Lodi she didn’t have an experience running an organization but thanks to the support of other similar organizations she was able to get in the swing of things.
Harmon said her biggest accomplishment with Tree Lodi over the years was planting more than 218 trees at DeBenedetti Park.
“That was our biggest project,” Harmon said.
She will miss working with Tree Lodi, she said, but she looks forward to getting back to her other interests.
“I have a lot of reading piled up that I would like to get to that haven’t done for a long time,” she said. Harmon is also a writer, serves as her family’s historian and crochets for Shriners.
“There will be no problems filling my time after backing away from Tree Lodi,” she said.
Outside of Tree Lodi, Harmon never had a career outside of forestry. She had a long career as a registered nurse and graduated from nursing school in Montreal, Canada in 1946. In 1961 she began working at Lodi Memorial and worked there for more than two decades before retiring. She was part of the historic white cap era, when nurses wore white caps and uniforms. She is now a part of the Cappies, a group of retired Lodi Memorial nurses.
“I started a little group of retired nurses who retired from Lodi Memorial and the few that are left of us we still meet for lunch now and then,” Harmon said.
According to Harmon, they called themselves the Cappies because of the white cap and uniforms that meant so much to their generation and have disappeared over the years.
The group has been thriving for 40 years, Harmon said.
In addition to her career as a nurse, Harmon is a mother of three.
She has two daughters, Nancy Mehlhaff and Barbara Valente, and a son, Tom Clarkson. Mehlhaff is the secretary of Tree Lodi and worked in the business office at Lodi Memorial for 35 years. She is now retired. Valente works as a nurse at Saint Joseph’s in Stockton. Clarkson lives in Mendocino. Harmon also has four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.