April, 2018
Success Stories: ArbNet 5th Anniversary Capacity Building Grant Project Results
The purpose of the grant was to support an ArbNet accredited arboretum in advancing its professional capacity in any of the four core areas of arboretum operations:
- Arboretum Management
- Education and Public Engagement
- Tree Collections
- Tree Science and Conservation
In November 2016 ArbNet was able to offer grants to 6 different institutions. These arboreta have worked hard through the following year to accomplish the projects they had envisioned. The results from those projects are listed below
The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum was granted $750 to support the creation of interpretation stations and promotional material. With those funds the organization was able to revise and reprint 500 new brochures. These were used throughout the year at various temporary information stations along the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. With these stations, staffed entirely by volunteers and docents, and the updated brochures, the organization was able to interact with people from over 125 different zip codes to share information on the Atlanta Beltline Arboretum.
The organization noted that they often have trouble spreading awareness about the arboretum because its location differs so vastly from stereotypical gardens. Without obvious gates or borders, the public does not realize that they are in the garden anytime they walk down the street. The brochures and information tables aided greatly in confronting this idea as staff and volunteers could indicate clearly on the map where the arboretum exists.
Read more regarding their grant project.
A grant for The Belton Memorial Park Arboretum in the amount of $750 was used to develop a walking tour map of the arboretum and a kiosk to display an enlarged map, seasonal displays, and visitor brochures. The arboretum worked closely with the city’s IT Specialist to make the walking tour map accessible on the city and public websites and to store the GIS data for future use. The walking tour map is designed to display Blue Ribbon Trees, Memorial Trees, and Trees by their ID tags.
Through a bit of resourcefulness, various donations, volunteers, and a local Boy Scout Eagle Project, the arboretum was able to accomplish their project at a fraction of their projected budget. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on April 28, 2017 to officially open the kiosk and the brochures to the public.
Read more about their grant project.
A grant of $1000 was awarded to The John Bartram Arboretum to support their Pilot Test for Remediation of Suffocating Tree Root Crowns. This project was an initiative to improve the arboretum’s tree collection and tree health. Many of their trees demonstrated stress and failure to thrive; their poor health was discovered to be a result of root crown suffocation. Using funding from the grant and assistance from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Urban Forestry arborist, Alan Siewert, the arboretum was able to strategize to remedy six of their stressed trees. The following year these 6 individuals were compared to a group of trees of the same species that had not received any remediation efforts. While the remediated trees looked healthier and showed more vigor one year after treatment, there was not yet any significant increase in trunk growth compared to the control group.
Additionally, John Bartram Arboretum hosted a workshop by the Ohio Independent Arborists Association in December of 2016 that brought in about 20 professional arborists from northeast Ohio. With training from the Ohio DNR Urban Forestry program and in collaboration with the Ohio Independent Arborists Association, the arboretum will host a workshop for tree care professionals and conduct a test of remediation and revitalization methods.
Read more about their grant project.
Southern New Hampshire University Arboretum used their grant of $424.83 to fund an interdisciplinary, collaborative Augmented Reality Project (A.R.boretum Project). The project started with research by a section of the university’s Environmental Issues class to detail all of the tree species in the arboretum. They were also tasked with writing unique environmental, cultural, and/or social facts about all of the trees. This data was used by a graphic design student to craft the tree labels which were later engraved by students of SNHU’s Innovation Lab and Makerspace. Finally, the labels were placed by students of the Environmental Club. The tree data and labels will be used moving forward by students of the Game Programming department to create an augmented reality that interacts with the arboretum. The hope is that the current project and future initiative will result in increased use, visibility, and educational opportunities within the arboretum space.
Read more about their grant project.
The project from Vallarta Botanical Garden remains ongoing due to a recent acquisition of land. The land was gifted to the garden to be used for advancing conservation practices. The project, funded by a grant in the amount of $1,000, consists of diversity surveys of the acquired land to create a database of the plant species. Vallarta Botanical Garden is collaborating with representatives from US gardens and arboreta to perform the surveys and strategize in conservation action. VBG's ultimate goal in this project is to serve as a global research and conservation hub and develop a model of conservation that can be used by other Mexican gardens.
Read more about their grant project.
Welkinweir Arboretum used their grant of $1,000 to redesign their website and create interactive web maps of the arboretum. Welkinweir found that their website was not as effective or efficient in communicating information and was not very mobile-friendly. With their grant project, the institution was able to simplify their site and refine their focus to three main areas: History, Horticulture, and Habitat. They also increased the content available on the website to include an events calendar, a research-focussed page, and pages dedicated to each of the arboreum gardens. Welkinweir was able to create their updated map by using the original as a base and building it to be dynamic and clickable with the WordPress mapping pluggin, Image Map Pro. The new informative map allows users to interact in order to visualize the garden’s collections, identify historic or memorial trees, and learn about Welkinweir in a unique way.
