The Tree That Was, Then Wasn’t: An Update
And is Fadi BouKaram still on a mission to plant trees?
Readers (and this writer) were left wondering. In a recent post, I told the story of Lebanese photographer Fadi BouKaram and his tree-planting journey—a project called Lebanon USA—in search of umpteen American towns and cities named Lebanon. While I found newspaper reports of his cedars of Lebanon trees in other Lebanons, and a mention of Lebanon NH on his website, I couldn’t find one of his trees here, nor evidence that BouKaram had in fact made it to the Upper Valley.
Artful reader Pat McGovern got right on it, posting a request for information on the Lebanon listserv, and unearthing the minutes of the September 25, 2018 meeting of the Library Board of Trustees, Kilton Public Library. Here’s the relevant excerpt from the minutes:
Fadi BouKaram made a visit to Lebanon, NH from the Country of Lebanon. Mr. BouKaram was visiting all the cities and towns named Lebanons in the United States by RV. When he visited us, he was looking for a Cedar Tree planted here in 1955. [Don’t know to what this refers.] He had a hard time finding this, so he brought us a new one and it was planted along the Connecticut River.
Pat pieced together a few other sources, all of which added up to this conclusion:
Unfortunately, as I feared, the tree did not survive. I found that Cedars of Lebanon require at least a 5b planting zone and ours is 4b. It makes sense that a Middle Eastern tree might have a hard time in our northern winters. In fact Lebanon, South Dakota opted out of the tree planting, recognizing the cedar was unlikely to survive there.
In addition, Amber Coughlin, children’s librarian at Lebanon Libraries, shared her memories:
Fadi came to visit us at the Kilton Library . . . We had a great talk about his project and his adventures. He's a lovely guy! The cedar was planted by Paul Coats in Bridge Street Park on the West Lebanon side of the Lyman Bridge. The cedar that was planted has since died, from what I understand. But it was a lovely experience and a wonderful project.
Finally, whither Fadi BouKaram? In a 2020 post on his blog, he recounted his various trips through the United Stated seeking all the Lebanons. He spends his days quite differently now. In his own words:
While I was on that trip [in 2018], I got a call from a company in Ireland, where I was offered a job in my old field, tax law advisory. I initially wasn’t interested since I had planned to leave the industry behind. Unfortunately, a life of a travelling photographer isn’t financially sustainable, especially that the two trips I had done were financed out of now-depleted savings. Luckily I had a fall-back career that allowed me to get back on my feet and I don’t regret my move to Dublin at all.
We appreciate your efforts, Pat McGovern. Well done!
An Artful note about finding older Artful posts: Thank you (!) to all of the Artful subscribers who turned out for a luncheon presentation I gave at Salt hill Pub on Wednesday. It was delightful to meet readers, not just through this screen, but face-to-face. A question was asked about whether and how one could re-read former posts on Artful. Here’s the skinny:
You probably receive your Artful posts in your email inbox. If you look in the upper right hand corner of the post, you will see a place where you can click to open the post “online.” Tap or click there, which will take you to the website; the most recent post should appear. Scroll down to the very end. You’ll see thumbnail photos and short excerpts of a handful of previous posts. Click on “See all” at the bottom left to display more posts. There are 2 settings for how the posts are arranged. Tap on “top” to see the posts arranged by number of readers, a sort of “greatest hits.” Tap “new” to see posts arranged in reverse chronological order.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.