East Tennessean

Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: News

ETSU's arboretum has now been named a Reference Garden for the American Conifer Society. [Click to enlarge]

As students hurry across campus, often with cell phones out, talking and texting, they may not even notice the small black placards at the bases of many of ETSU's trees.
But if you are a biology student you assuredly have run into this collection of trees known as the ETSU Arboretum.
Ten or more classes in the biological sciences department use the Arboretum regularly, everything from your Intro Biology to 4000/5000 level courses.
Foster Levy, professor of biological sciences, noted how important it is to have the real thing for examples and practice when teaching. "I think that is where the highest value is, where we don't have to do something virtual." His colleague Tim McDowell, agreed, calling the Arboretum "absolutely essential for some upper-level classes," which use it daily.
The ETSU Arboretum has also received notice nationally, just last week receiving approval to be a Reference Garden for the American Conifer Society - only the second to receive such a designation in the Southeast.
It also is certified by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture as a "Class IV" arboretum, the highest level of recognition and only one of four such classified arboretums in the entire state.
The ETSU Arboretum, conceived in 2001 by Levy and McDowell, encompasses the core of the 200 plus acre ETSU campus and an adjoining 20 acres of university woods, located south of the train trestle on Southwest Avenue.
A walking tour informative brochure notes that 451 varieties of woody plants that can be seen across the campus.
"Almost nowhere you can walk on campus where there is not trees that have been planted to help the Arboretum, increase diversity or to help with educational goal," said Dr. Levy, former co-director of the Arboretum.
Besides the self-guided walking-tours guided tours can be scheduled with McDowell.
McDowell is the current director of the ETSU Arboretum. He presents 10 or more of these talks or tours a year to groups as diverse as K-12 school groups, Northeast Tenn. Nursery Association, Southern Appalachian Plant Society, local garden clubs, and even a Jesuit group.

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