Trees Planted in Memory of Christine Snyder
From the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania
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Christine Snyder
Age: 32 Hometown: Kailua, Hawai‘i Occupation: Arborist and Project Manager, The Outdoor Circle Reason for travel: Returning from a conference A native of Hawai‘i, Christine Ann Snyder was a Project Manager and certified arborist for The Outdoor Circle, Hawai‘i's oldest nonprofit environmental group. According to her family, the beautification of Hawai‘i was her profession, pride, and joy. During her six years with The Outdoor Circle, Snyder supervised volunteers in planting trees and worked to protect trees and landscapes from development. She held a degree in political science from the University of Hawai‘i. On September 11th, she was returning from the National Urban Forestry Conference in Washington, D.C., and an impromptu, first-time visit to New York City. A connecting flight in San Francisco would have taken Snyder home to Kailua, Hawai‘i and her husband of just three months. Flight 93 National Memorial As part of the memorial, there is a “Plant a Tree at Flight 93” that takes place under the auspices of the National Park Service. For a decade, the National Park Service, Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, and National Park Foundation have partnered to continue a major reforestation project that will soon result in 150,000 newly planted trees at Flight 93 National Memorial. This conservation project is part of the memorial’s original design and meant to reclaim the former surface mine with native trees to re-establish wildlife habitats, create essential windbreaks and complete the healing of the memorial landscape. It is hard to imagine a more fitting tribute to Christine at this site considering her life’s work in tree planting and beautification efforts. This project epitomizes the collective and personal dedication to reclaim a former surface coal mine and reestablish woodland wildlife habitats and cultivate a living memorial. Plant a Tree at Flight 93 |
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The Christine Snyder Memorial Tree in Waikiki
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A variegated ficus benjamina tree with beautiful finely patterned leaves was planted in front of the zoo on Kapahulu Avenue, located opposite Hula’s Bar and Grill, in Christine Snyder’s memory. This tree will provide beauty and shade in honor of Christine for decades to come. These photos were taken by Brian Bagnall, former President of the Greater Waikiki Branch of The Outdoor Circle, on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 where a blessing and traditional Hawaiian chant were performed as part of the ceremony of remembrance.
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The Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle Branch Dedicated a Tree in Memory of Christine at Kalaheo High School
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The Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle Branch was planting a golden shower tree on the morning of 9/11 at Kalaheo High School, to thank their audio-visual department for producing a video about The Outdoor Circle, featuring Frank DeLima and Mr. Mynah, The Outdoor Circle’s teaching “mascot.”
Having just heard the news of the attacks and Christine’s death, they dedicated the tree in her memory and the memory of all those lives lost that morning. The tree still stands today. The school holds a ceremony each September 11th in memory of the all lives lost and plans to increase its tree plantings in Christine’s memory in the future. On Thursday, September 9, 2021, The Conversation, on KHPR, featured an interview with The Outdoor Circle’s Lani-Kailua Branch member, Betsy Connors, who was at the tree planting that day in 2001. The interview is available online: The Conversation ~ Interview with Betsy Conners and the Events of that Day |
The Waimea Outdoor Circle Branch Memorial to Christine Snyder
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One of the first memorial trees Waimea Outdoor Circle volunteers planted in the Waimea Nature Park was to Christine Snyder, The Outdoor Circle's arborist who died on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11th.
Waimea Branch members recently replaced the fading plaque with this new and larger one, which can be found at the base of a large koai'a tree on the meadow, near the concrete bench. Members place an American flag and flowers there every September 11th and July 4th. |
The Kaneohe Outdoor Circle Branch Tree Planting in Memory of Christine
Planting Trees of Remembrance at Kamaole I Beach Park
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On a Friday morning at Kamaole I Beach Park, residents, visitors, students, veterans and community leaders gathered for an Arbor Day ceremony rooted in remembrance and renewal. The event brought people together around a simple act with lasting meaning: planting trees to honor military service and the people who gave their lives in service to others.
The well coordinated ceremony was initiated by County Parks Department staff member Sue Kaing and supported by Boy Scouts, veterans, the Arborists Committee, The Outdoor Circle and the Kihei Community Association Street Tree Committee. Mayor Alan Arakawa and Senate candidate Ed Case were among those who joined the gathering, which connected public space, environmental stewardship and community memory. Three young trees were planted near a memorial for an Underwater Demolition Team member, a predecessor of today’s Navy SEALs. The plantings created a living tribute with three related purposes: honoring the UDT and Navy SEALs, remembering the victims of September 11—including Christine Snyder, an arborist aboard Flight 93—and commemorating Maui residents who lost their lives in military service, including Craig Vickers. The project shows how a community can care for a park while carrying memory forward. Each tree gives the memorial a living presence that will grow with time, offering shade, beauty and a place for future generations to learn about courage, service and sacrifice. The County Parks Department later added a Noni, or Indian mulberry, to the memorial planting. With proper care, the young tree was expected to grow substantially, joining the original Milo trees and strengthening the green setting around the memorial. That continuing care reflects the purpose of Arbor Day: planting for the future and tending the places that bring people together. At Kamaole I, remembrance is expressed through growth. The trees invite residents and visitors to pause, reflect and take part in the shared work of caring for Maui’s landscapes. They stand as a quiet promise that honoring service can also mean nurturing life. Published December 26, 2011 |
Flowering Pear Tree Becomes Part of Red Arrow Park’s Memorial for Christine Snyder
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Nearly 19 years ago, I was attending a national urban forestry conference in Washington, DC. There were several highlights which I will remember forever. Among them were viewing fireworks over the Washington Monument; many of the other monuments in the National Mall area; visiting the National Grove of State Trees at the U.S. Arboretum and seeing the Sugar Maple trees which I had donated, several years earlier, representing Wisconsin in the grove. I returned to Manitowoc on Sunday, September 9. A few attendees stayed in DC for a short vacation. At least one traveled to New York to visit relatives before returning to her home in Hawai‘i.
A couple of days later, on a nice, warm sunny Tuesday in WI, we heard a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. A short time later, we heard that more planes crashed into the Trade Center and Pentagon in Washington, DC. One plane, Flight 93 left New York early that morning. Among the passengers was Christine Snyder, who was one of the attendees at the conference I had been to. She and the others on that fateful flight never made it home. In 2014, the TREE (Tree Research and Education Endowment) Fund and the Stihl Tour des Trees chose to hold their weeklong, fund raising bicycle tour in Wisconsin. During that week, I was among the nearly 100 riders, from all over the world. During the weeklong 600 mile ride, we made several stops; meeting with local dignitaries; making countless tree dedications; and offered several entertaining and informational programs for adults and children. One of our tree dedication sites was in downtown Green Bay at the Neville Public Museum, near the 9/11 Memorial (since removed). Bartlett Tree Experts of Charlotte, NC were able to acquire one of the Survivor Flowering Pear seedlings, which were grown from the only tree to survive the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. The Tour riders and staff, along with the Mayor of Green Bay and other local dignitaries, planted and dedicated that tree in remembrance for our lost colleague, Christine Snyder. Last spring (2019), while talking with the forester for the City of Green Bay, he told me there was a backup tree, to the one we dedicated in 2014 – another 9/11 Survivor Flowering Pear?! Green Bay’s Forestry Dept. staff had been taking care of that tree since 2014 and they felt it needed a new home. Silver Creek Nurseries took over the tree’s care and offered it to the Ramp it Up organization to plant at Red Arrow Park, as part of their memorial project. This special Flowering Pear was planted earlier this spring by Dennis Hardy and other volunteers from Ramp it Up. Manitowoc’s Survivor Flowering Pear was officially dedicated on July 16, 2020. Many of us still remember that day in September. Future generations will have a symbol to tell the story of that day. This special tree will serve as that symbol and storyteller to all about that warm, sunny, and tragic day in September of 2001. Jeff Edgar, Silver Creek Nurseries August 17, 2020 |
Offshoots of Buddha's Bo Tree Grow in Hawai‘i
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Website story draft based on Heidi Bornhorst’s Honolulu Advertiser article published March 31, 2006
Source: Heidi Bornhorst, The Honolulu Advertiser article Across Hawaiʻi, bodhi trees connect living landscapes with a history of cultivation, generosity and spiritual meaning. These remarkable trees, also known as bo trees or Ficus religiosa, descend from one of the world’s oldest cultivated trees and continue to flourish in gardens, parks and other public places. According to the Honolulu Advertiser article, the story reaches back to a tree in India associated with Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. A cutting was carried to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, in 288 B.C., where it became the oldest existing cultivated tree known to us. In the 1930s, Hawaiʻi benefactor Mary Mikihala Robinson Foster supported a hospital in Sri Lanka. Monks expressed their gratitude by giving her a plant propagated from that ancient tree. Foster planted and nurtured the young tree at Foster Botanical Garden. Today, visitors can see its large, graceful form near the garden entrance—a living example of how careful stewardship allows a meaningful plant to take root and thrive in a new place. Bodhi trees reward thoughtful planning. They are generous shade trees that need room to develop their full beauty, and their distinctive leaves end in a curved “tail.” In the slightest breeze, the leaves flutter like small green flags. The tree may grow with a single trunk or several trunks, while its white bark becomes thick and textured over time. Early pruning by an arborist can help shape a strong, well balanced specimen. Botanical gardens help this living history continue. They document how plants grow and share them with other gardens, parks and churches that have the space and care these trees require. In 1999, Foster Botanical Garden used air layering to propagate strong cuttings, preparing new specimen trees for the Indian and Sri Lankan plant collections at Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden. The same spirit of sharing created a memorial at the Hale Koa Hotel. After September 11, 2001, landscape director Darryl Barbadillo asked whether a bodhi tree could be planted in memory of Christine Snyder, an arborist who was aboard Flight 93. A beautiful tree was selected and planted by the hotel team in a corner of Kuroda Field, where it had room to grow with strength and grace. These trees invite a personal kind of stewardship. In public gardens and memorial landscapes, people can pause beneath their shade, notice the movement of the leaves and place a hand on the trunk. Each tree carries a story of care passed from one person and place to another—and offers fresh air, beauty and a living connection to the future. |