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One morning in the Hudson Valley, a tree falls. Its canopy, long shading a backyard or sheltering a hillside, collapses with a crack. A moment later and a mile away, a new tree emerges at Arthur’s Point Farm. Its roots, carefully set in living soil, begin to anchor. One life ends. Another begins. And in the space between, a quiet partnership keeps the cycle going.
Arthur’s Point Farm and New Leaf Tree Services are two distinct operations that share a commitment to ecological stewardship. We grow new plants for the region. They manage and often remove hazardous trees and replace them with new native ones, many of which sprouted at our nursery. At the intersection of these tasks lies a shared ethic: care for the land that stretches far beyond a single project. Together, we are helping shape a model for how restoration, land management, and nursery growing can work in tandem—not just in theory, but in practice.
Before Arthur’s Point Farm became a plant nursery, it was a collection of tired pastures and woods inundated with invasive species. As we began managing the land, we turned to New Leaf time and again to evaluate, prune and manage some of the existing trees onsite. What began as a straightforward contract turned into a relationship built on shared values: transparency, ecological awareness, and long-term thinking.
“We saw immediately that New Leaf wasn’t just in the business of tree removal. They were asking the right questions about the landscape,” reflects Stephanie Lazar, Arthur’s Point’s co-founder. “Their questions aligned with what we were asking ourselves as we started building Arthur’s Point Farm.”
As Arthur’s Point grew—literally—from a vision into a functioning nursery focused on native and ecologically important species, New Leaf evolved too. Their business split into two: New Leaf Tree Services, which handles pruning, removals, and plant health care, and New Leaf Ecological Landscapes, which designs and installs regenerative, place-based landscapes.
Our relationship kept pace with this evolution. We began supplying New Leaf with bare-root and potted plants grown specifically for restoration work. Native species with deep root systems. No circling roots. No container stress. The kinds of plants that hold.
Caleb White, New Leaf’s founder, speaks to us openly about the emotional and environmental impact of taking down trees. “There’s grief in it,” he says. “Even when it’s necessary for safety or health, it’s never just a job. We wanted a way to balance that work.”
That balance took shape through the Plant It Back program, a New Leaf initiative that replaces removed trees with new, native ones, often sourced from Arthur’s Point. These aren’t off-the-shelf saplings. They’re site-specific selections, grown with purpose and resilience in mind.
We see the Plant It Back program as a perfect expression of our mission. “Our job isn’t just to grow healthy plants,” says David Newman, Arthur’s Point’s co-founder. “It’s to help these plants find a permanent home and restore their native habitat. Seeing our trees planted by a team that understands their value and plants them with care—that’s the loop in which we want to participate.”
There are logistical reasons this relationship thrives: timely communication, aligned project timelines, and a clear understanding of plant material needs. But the real glue is deeper: a shared trust in how each other works.
“I can call Arthur’s Point and say, ‘We’ve got a dry slope, partial shade, deer pressure,’ and they’ll know exactly what to recommend,” Caleb says. “That’s rare.”
We, in turn, appreciate the integrity New Leaf brings to installations. Their teams don’t overplant. They don’t cut corners. They see each plant as a living investment.
This mutual respect shows up in the field. New Leaf regularly installs species like silky dogwood, American hazelnut, mountain mint, and foxglove beardtongue from our nursery—plants selected for aesthetic as well as ecological value. It sounds simple, but in the big-business nursery and landscaping industries the practice is rare: use native plants from the local area.
It would be easy to frame this story around big concepts: climate resilience, biodiversity corridors, carbon sinks. Of course, these things matter a whole lot. But this partnership is also about humans: growers, arborists, landowners, and clients making hard decisions about their landscapes and working together to bring their plans into reality.
Sometimes that means removing a beloved tree. Sometimes it means planting something you’ll never see reach maturity. Always, it means choosing care over convenience. The future over the present.
“When we talk about ecological restoration, we’re not selling an outcome,” says Caleb. “We’re inviting people into a process.”
Arthur’s Point Farm works by this process. It’s why we invest in slow-growing species. Why we use biochar in our soil mixes. Why we teach customers about root structures and planting techniques. Because every landscape choice has consequences—and opportunities.
Together, Arthur’s Point and New Leaf are helping restore the Hudson Valley’s ecological diversity one backyard, field or woodland at a time. That might be a residential rain garden, a municipal replanting effort, or a pollinator corridor across a small farm.
The work is slow. It requires cooperation. But it holds.
“We don’t want to be everything to everyone,” David says. “We want to be essential to the people doing this kind of work.”
Whether you’re rethinking a landscape, restoring a site, or simply replacing a lost tree, you can do it in a way that supports local ecologies. And if you’re not sure where to begin, just ask. Both teams are happy to help.
This partnership didn’t come from a marketing campaign. It came from years of showing up, doing the work, and learning what it takes to steward land in this region.
One tree comes down. Another takes root. And somewhere in between, something better grows.
Find out more about our approach to farming and land stewardship.
