A Small Arboretum Takes on the Big Task of Climate Education

As we await the long anticipated blossoming of our Magnolia collection, I find that the issue of climate change and its effects are at the forefront of my mind. When I first became involved with Pine Hollow Arboretum, our late founder, John W. Abbuhl, mentioned that the first weekend in April was the best time to have our annual spring open house as that was when the early blooming Magnolia cultivars were at their peak. Since then however, we have had spring open houses with no Magnolias in bloom due to prolonged dormancy induced by the weather. We have also had spring open houses with no Magnolias in bloom due to freakishly late hard frosts. Finally, last spring, we had the most magnificent showing of Magnolia flowers in recent memory....though several weeks later than normal.

The following question was recently posed: "What is the Arboretum going to do about climate change?" Unlike some larger public gardens and arboreta who have established climate change initiatives (like Chicago Botanic Garden Climate Education Initiatives), Pine Hollow is a small organization operated by only 2 employees (myself included). To be completely honest, first reaction was "I don't even know what we can do!!". However, the more I mulled it over, I think there are definitely things we can and are already doing.  

First, Pine Hollow provides a unique and accessible site to observe the more tangible effects of climate change. We are open free to the public 365 days a year and much of our horticultural collection is labeled. With trees and other woody plants from around the world as well as native species, the Arboretum has great potential as a research site for climate studies (hear that grad students?!). I can think of a dozen projects that could be done on-site to help inform our collective knowledge on how climate change will affect plants, pathogens & pests, pollinators in our own backyard.  

Second, in all of our outreach, whether through our environmental education program for local students or through public presentations, we have the opportunity to further climate change awareness and to encourage positive action. The grounds management philosophy that we adhere to is one that encourages the natural ecosystem and the network of wildlife it is host to. By sharing our practices, we have always hoped that we would inspire homeowners to landscape their yards in an ecologically sensitive way (don't rake your leaves, PLEASE!). I hope that our capacity to do more programming like this will grow. 

My third thought is that there is so much more we could do to address the critical issue of global climate change. We need to switch to electric motorized equipment, we need to reduce our paper use and we should definitely plant more species that support native pollinators (which we are doing this year!). In the meantime, as I continue to think about all the ways Pine Hollow could and should address climate change, I will continue to wait for our Magnolias to bloom.

Lauren Axford is the executive director of The Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands, NY (www.pinehollowarboretum.org).

Aerial view of the Magnolia Field @pinehollowarboretum Photo credit: PJ Namkoong