Season's greetings and a brief look back at 2015
KEY ORDER: Top to bottom (first column); top to bottom (second column); top to bottom (third column).
(1) A wide variety of campus and community supporters came together to officially dedicate the new Arboretum GATEway Garden at our east end;
(2) we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of our Arboretum All-Star plants and programs at our plant sales;
(3) Arboretum and Public Garden staff, volunteers, students and Animal Science academic partners commemorated the official opening of the Animal Science GATEway Garden;
(4) staff mentors teamed with student interns to complete a regionally and environmentally-significant green roof project;
(5) our team’s water conservation planning and implementation efforts led to a significant decrease in our campus landscape irrigation water use;
(6) we improved the health of our trees by employing targeted irrigation methods like slow-release watering bags;
(7) in addition to inspiring our communities about the joys of nature, our environmental leadership interns — the Arboretum Ambassadors — received “Best Department Float” in this year’s annual Picnic Day parade;
(8) in a gathering led by Student Coordinator Naftali Moed, Learning by Leading students met each other and supporters of the program;
(9) student leaders provided multiple environmental education resources to regional schools; and
(10) as always, we are grateful for the contributions of the 160+ weekly community volunteers who made a difference in nearly every aspect of the Arboretum and Public Garden, from cataloging plant collections to enhancing the gardens to growing plants for the teaching nursery.