Trees and presidents at the New Haven Museum

 NEW HAVEN - The New Haven Museum will act as host for a talk on "The Executive’s Branch: Trees and the Shaping of Four Great American Presidents," at  6 p.m. Feb. 12.
The talk, featuring Eric Rutkow, will be held on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and is in honor of Presidents’ Day, according to a release.
"This talk looks at the relationship between trees and four of our commanders-in-chief: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt," the release said. "Drawing on stories from his book 'American Canopy,' Rutkow will explain some of the ways that the natural landscape shaped these four men and how they in turn shaped the nation's forests."
"The legend of George Washington and the cherry tree will be the entry point to a broad-ranging discussion that includes the birth of federal environmental protection, the creation of the national parks and forests, the famous “Tree Army” of the 1930s, and ceremonial trees, such as the oak tree that was planted on the New Haven Green to celebrate the centennial of Lincoln’s birth and lost during Hurricane Sandy."

Copies of Rutkow’s book will be available for purchase. The lecture is free and open to the public, the release said. Rutkow is  a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, the release said. He has worked as a lawyer on environmental and corporate issues and now is currently a doctorate in American history at Yale, the release said.

The New Haven Museum is at 114 Whitney Ave

Editor's note: All information in this post was contributed.