Named for noted wildlife biologist and professor, the Jason M Garvon Arboretum is located on Kingsley High School grounds in Kingsley, Michigan.  These grounds have served as the high school campus for roughly 27 years now. Encompassing roughly 103 acres, there are 5 distinctive forest types and well over 40 species of trees and shrubs, from very important commercial hardwood species like White Oak, Black Walnut, and Sugar Maple as well as imperiled species like American Elm, Slippery Elm, White Ash and Green Ash. The vision for the future is for this arboretum to serve a dual purpose: Preserve and showcase the tremendous native biodiversity of the northern Michigan forest while also preparing the future. Given the rapid advance of climate change, the JMG Arboretum will be very involved with range expansion of hardwood tree species, in the hopes of providing a model or template to future generations of land managers attempting to make species choices in this now changed world.

The JMG Arboretum includes an extensive and growing collection of mainly hardwood trees. Most visually impressive are the old trees present in the stands, including very large and old specimens of sugar maple, basswood, black cherry, white pine and Slippery Elm, as well as intact, relatively healthy examples of white ash, green ash, and American elm. Currently as part of range expansion efforts, the JMG arboretum as well as Kingsley students have worked to propagate and introduce many hardwood species, including many white oak group oaks (Bur, Swamp White, Chestnut, etc.), many hickories (Shagbark, Bitternut, Pignut, Shellbark) and many more typically overlooked species like American Hornbeam and American Persimmon. As a public school and arboretum site, there will be varied and ongoing research and experimental planting happening for the foreseeable future.