Archive: Around Town

Cornell Plantations will receive $20K from the Stanley Smith Horticulture Trust to expand visitor services in their F.R. Newman Arboretum.  Over the course of the next year, Cornell Plantations will be adding new interpretive signs, way-finding signs, and offer self-guided audio-visual tours via mobile phones in the F.R. Newman Arboretum.

Since the completion of the Arboretum in 1981, Plantations has had limited visitor information – in the arboretum – to explain to visitors the importance of the plant collections found there.  This grant allows for expanded services that will include mobile phone audio-visual tours to communicate the significance of the key plant collections within the 150-acre arboretum, and will reveal how researchers from Cornell and around the world use these collections for scientific study.

“The aim of all interpretation in the arboretum is to emphasize the significance of plant diversity, promote an understanding of how plants strongly affect human well-being, foster a deeper awareness, understanding and appreciation for horticulture and its value to human society, and to encourage ecologically responsible gardening and sustainable land management aimed at conserving biodiversity,” stated Sarah Fiorello, interpretation coordinator at Cornell Plantations.  “Currently, due to the limited interpretation in the arboretum, many visitors view the space as a beautifully manicured park, not as an arboretum -- with significant plant collections that are used for educational and research purposes.  It’s our hope that these visitor enhancements will help bring a fuller awareness to our visitors.”

The collections located in the F.R. Newman Arboretum include nut trees, crabapples, oaks, maples, shrubs, and urban trees.  There are also specialty gardens found in the arboretum that include the Zucker Shrub Collection and the Treman Woodland Walk.

The Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust was created in 1970 by May Smith, in honor of her late husband. The Trust supports education and research in ornamental horticulture, primarily in North and South America. Grants up to $20,000 are typically made to botanical gardens, arboreta, and universities.

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