Botanical pg 1 12-8-11
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caption, pg 1:
Arboretum
One of the paths into the Palmer Arboretum behind the Palmer Memorial Hall on Rt. 169. More photos, pg 6. Linda Lemmon photo.
captions, pg 6:
Upper left: Beech tree through screen of Devil's Walking sticks. Top: Bud ready for spring. Above: Holly.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
WOODSTOCK --- The Palmer Arboretum languishes no more. With the help of grants, students, volunteers and still more volunteers, the nearly century-old arboretum is set to take flight in the spring.
This spring a rain garden and drainage work, funded by a grant, will be completed around the top parking lot of the arboretum. The arboretum's board is also pursuing a $650 grant from The Last Green Valley to redo the brochure and label the plants in the 1.8-acre gem, according to arboretum board president Bill Brower.
An Eagle Scout is interested in creating a platform near the left entrance to the arboretum come spring. He plans to build an overlook into the slope and add some benches so the disabled can admire the arboretum. Grants for this work are also being pursued.
Matt Sheldon, of Sheldon Tree Service, has been cleaning out the wetland area behind the shed and the European Beech tree. "He's been invaluable," Brower said. Through his work, Brower said, a cottonwood and an American Beech were discovered. It was so overgrown, Brower said, "we didn't even realize they were in there."
Hyde School applied calculus classes did the measurements throughout the arboretum.
And all of the projects now fall harmoniously under a master plan recently chosen by the arboretum's board.
Students in Kristin Schwab's landscape architecture department at UConn divided themselves into teams and worked with the board to create a master plan that will take the arboretum into the next century.
Brower said the board tasked the students with making the arboretum more open to visitors. They want less maintenance (mowing), more paths and places for gathering and picture taking (for example, hosting weddings). They also asked that parts of the arboretum be made more ADA accessible.
Team Ginkgo Biloba presented the winning plans, although the board plans to incorporate small parts of other plans into the master plan.
"We picked that team because they most met what we were asking for, paths, gathering," Brower said. The plan includes 2-foot stone dust paths throughout and various plant communities including two equal entry ways, a wetland plant community, a low-mow grass section with horticultural plants, a rain garden, woodland plants, gathering space, and wetland areas that, down the road, might include a pond area.
Brower said the comprehensive plan took into account the neighborhood, what's there already, where the sun stands in the sky, , the wet areas, what's there already, the slopes and more.
The UConn teams "all listened" to what we wanted, Brower said. "We will take things out of each plan," he added.
Brower said the idea of a master plan for the arboretum began years ago when a former member suggested that the board should plan for the future of the arboretum. "It really got us going," Brower said. Hiring a professional landscape architect was cost prohibitive, but Brower said the board "started bugging" UConn's landscape architecture department. He estimated that the board has been working on bringing a master plan to fruition has taken about five years.
And if the board wins grants consistently and receives continued volunteer donations and help, it might take 10 years to make the whole master plan a reality.
The board has set its priorities, Brower said. First on the list is focusing on the two entryways. Then they plan to "take care of what we have." Third will be to get rid of invasive plants and fourth is to develop the wetland area. He added that board member Chad Hart, an arborist, is planning another "Arborists in the Arboretum" in 2012. In 2011 nine arborists donated their time to take care of the trees in the arboretum.