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And from viewers like you, thank you.

(bright music) - Hi, I'm Ria Joe spring is finally here.

With the weather warming people are looking for things to do outside and the Penn State Arboretum has a full schedule of spring and summer events.

On this episode of digging deeper, Penn State President Eric Barron talks to Ken Steiner, Director of the Arboretum at Penn State and chair Kay Edelson, Director of Operations at the Arboretum at Penn State.

- Well, thanks so much for joining me, I personally think the Arboretum is just a very, very special place.

Maybe we should just begin what is an arboretum?

What makes it an arboretum?

- I think that's a good question.

I think it's on the mind of a lot of people I get asked a lot.

Probably the easiest way to understand that is to think of it as a museum for plants, or a zoo for plants I really hate those two terms, as analogies for Arboretum and Botanic Gardens.

But that might make it more understandable for the general public, we do curate our collections just as museums do and libraries, of course.

So there's nothing out there by accident and we have a history on everything that's there.

So the purpose, well the purpose of Arboretum Botanic Garden has tended to change through the years, centuries but nowadays, they're typically there for public education.

And not just about botany, necessarily or plants but they also serve a research purpose.

and ours especially we usually have a dozen or so research projects going on out there.

But for most people, they're just nice places to visit and get a little bit of education in the process.

- So the history of our Arboretum is rather interesting to me.

What I remember is that I was the Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and we were gonna plant a tree.

- Yeah.

- And this tree, the Hosler oak and of course Charlie Hosler was the former Dean at Earth and Mineral Sciences in provost.

And we were gonna plant this witness tree and of course, Charlie been so important to the college Molly and I made sure we were gonna be there.

And it was cold, and we were putting that tree in the ground and I must admit that I turned to my wife and I said, "That is gonna be the loneliest tree for a very long time."

(Kay laughs) So I can tell you to come back as president and see the Arboretum was nothing short of astounding.

And so can you tell me were you both believers from the beginning?

- Well I mean, unfortunately it wasn't here yet.

But well I hadn't been because that was my job I guess.

And I remember when we planted Holser oak it was I can tell you the date, it was March 21st 2005.

And yeah, I was a cold day and it was a big tree.

- Yeah.

- But it was you know, then we dedicated it that September.

And that fall I didn't actually hear this program I would occasionally listen to Michael Feldman on WPSU on Saturday, but I missed this one.

He came to campus and he did his usual monologue about local things that made the audience laugh.

And he pointed out that we have an arboretum with just one tree in it it was the only one he'd ever seen like that.

(laughing in unison) But it was our start and it was part of my effort to sustain interest in the Arboretum.

We had to find an eight figure donor To start that was president's Panniers proclamation.

And I think it helped you know actually the donation came along shortly after that so maybe it did help a lot.

- So maybe you could tell us from that tree, and give us kind of a sequence in time up to today in terms of what grew next.

What came next?

And what came to where we are right now?

And we'll talk about the pollinator garden in a little bit, but take us up to just before the pollinator garden, in terms of a sequence.

- Sure.

So when we planted that tree we actually had a plan that was was done back in 2002. and the location was, was chosen to be at a certain spot on what's now the strolling garden.

And of course you can go out right there now, and that has a rope is quite a prominent feature on the strolling garden.

There about what I call the 10 o'clock position looking to Park Avenue.

And then we got our gift from Skip Smith, he gave us $10 million to start to Arboretum and that created a challenge we had farewell we would do with that money we couldn't build everything that we wanted to.

And we knew we had to set some of it aside for an endowment to sport operating expenses.

So the phase one that was what we call phase one, it was finally completed in fall of 2009 was the result of those plans, it was reduced version of our, full size Botanic Garden, but it was what we could afford at the time.

And since then, because we as depend entirely on philanthropy to do our building, our capital projects.

We've pursued projects that we thought would be attractive to donors.

So the first one was a children's garden which was completed in 2014 that added about an acre to botanic gardens.

And the second was the pollinator and bird garden that's about to be completed now.

And it's adding three and a 1/4 acres are about increasing the side by about 60%.

And we're still not done so there's more to do but that's been the strategy to look at what the opportunities are at any given point in time and measure those against what we think might be donor interest.

- And Sherry, so what is your role in this expansion or program?

- So my responsibilities include curating and developing our living planet collections, overseeing all of these construction and expansion projects that we're fortunate enough to be able to pursue, and then providing operational support for any programming or other events that occur on the grounds at the Arboretum.

- So what type of events can people expect?

So programming so we're not just talking about strolling through the gardens here.

We're really talking about activities that take place that people can specifically go to what's planned for the summer?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we are feeling very fortunate to be able to begin programming in person events and educational sessions again in the Arboretum.

So our first programs are actually getting started next week.

It is bird migration season and so Penn State faculty ornithologists and volunteer birders are going to be leading a migration observation walks of birds in the Arboretum starting on weekdays next week, which is pretty exciting.

Starting a little bit later in the spring and actually through the summer, we're going to have free drop in program for children and families, mostly focused in the Children's Garden.

These typically occur on weekday mornings and folks can easily pop in and pop out there's no registration required for those folks just happen to be visiting the Arboretum on a morning and they see an activity that looks fun to them.

They can just stop by and engage.

- So how many people are visiting the Arboretum?

I don't know it must be very seasonal, but go ahead (murmurs).

- Sure so we get approximately 150,000 visitors a year.

And while as you'd expect those visitors are often here in town or at State College for other events, such as football games, or the Arts Festival, or one of our large seasonal events like the Pumpkin Festival.

There are also a lot of folks who are no locals who visit regularly or who are visiting the region just as tourists and start off with the Arboretum as one of their sort of trip highlights.

So our visitors come from really locally and all over the region and country.

And as you'd expect, our visitors will most frequently come during the growing season, so really April through November, or December I would say are high points in the year.

- So I'm sure you you have favourite parts of the Arboretum.

And I wanna ask about one of my favourite parts, which is the Children's Garden.

And part of the reason why I love it is that every time I walk through, there are families with a child in a backpack or playing the music or climbing on the caterpillar.

this seems to me that it's become a real attractor for young families.

And as a beautiful, peaceful and enjoyable place where you can feel safe and just see things we wouldn't see other places.

So what led you to do a children's garden so early in that process was it driven by philanthropy?

Or was it driven by that sort of vision that this was gonna be a special place for young families?

- No, it was the vision.

And it wasn't entirely our vision because we've been told repeatedly by designers, and we consulted that the children's gardens were popular places to grow the Arboretum or Arboretum Botanic Gardens.

But yeah I mean, we saw it exactly as you described I feel the same way when I go in there you see parents and children but you'll also see grandparents with their grandchildren.

And you'll also see older people without children who I think come just to watch the children.

So I mean, it's a magnet for kids for sure but then the kids serve as a magnet I think for the for the adults.

I have someone that I do business with that told me about a mother with an autistic child who she finds that that place is a place to bring her son that the world becomes perfect when they get in there.

- Well, so let's switch audiences from the toddler and preteen to our students.

what does the Arboretum do for a Penn State student?

- Sherry, why don't you take that one on because I know you see them all the time.

- (laughs) So I think one of my favourite things about this time of year in particular, is just as the weather warms up we see so many students coming out to the Arboretum to enjoy the afternoons after their classes are over for the day.

And it's so personally gratifying for me to see Penn State students using this space, they're meeting up with other members of their clubs, maybe they're meeting up to talk about a class project, they're all on their laptops using our Wi-Fi.

Maybe they're just taking a walk with friends to kind of relax after a stressful exam.

And I think that even in these informal ways, I feel like we're really contributing to just the baseline quality of life or students at Penn State And so it feels really good to be providing such a meaningful and well used campus amenity.

But then of course, there are all the formal ways that the Arboretum factors into student's academic experience, both in terms of course instruction, and then in terms of student research opportunities.

And we're also really proud of the support that we provide for those academic experiences.

So we probably have about 40 different academic courses that will use the Arboretum for course instruction sessions over the course of the academic year.

And as Kim mentioned earlier, we also host at any given time probably about a dozen different faculty or student research projects where there's actually a study and experimentation being conducted, using either the Arboretum's plant collections, interpretive framework, or natural areas.

So there are all those ways that students can tap into the Arboretum in more formal respects as well.

- I'm absolutely certain that many people see it as a beautiful place and an interesting place, but I suspect nobody knows how many different things are going on, that are related to the Arboretum.

I mean, that notion about the number of courses I think is remarkable that this is a living laboratory, as well as just a wonderful place to visit and enjoy yourselves.

And I must admit, I get a kick out of seeing all the students on a Saturday afternoon or something out there sitting there chatting or wandering around the Arboretum.

This is starting to be a pretty big operation and must take quite a few people.

But I understand volunteers are a big part of the story.

So do we have a lot of volunteers?

How does someone volunteer?

What types of things are they doing?

- Well, go to our website, we have a link there for a volunteer page and you can sign up and you're on our list and you will be contacted.

- So we have several kinds of volunteers.

One set are garden volunteers that come in nowadays on Tuesday and Thursday morning, sort of a hardcore group of about 10 people that show up and do gardening and really help us out, budget wise.

We have docents who do guided tours, which are arranged through our office.

So when people call up and would like a tour for let's say, an alumni group, we will find a docent to take care of that or one of our staff members.

We have Children's Garden volunteers who who help out with the staff and the interns who are out there being paid to work in the Children's Garden.

And what am I missing Sherry?

Well, we've got the folks who (laughs) we have the large number of people, mostly student groups who show up on weekends to work in Hartleywood on our restoration projects, but also most recently Sherry, you wanna talk about the planting programmes that we have going on in the pollinator garden right now?

- Yes, certainly.

So in building our new pollinator and bird garden, one of our sort of most exciting goals was to actually get the community both the campus community and the local community involved during the construction itself.

So we were able to get permission and coordinate with the general contractor to actually host weekend volunteer sessions, where we invite members of the public in to help us actually plant all the plants in the garden.

So during our fall volunteer sessions on the construction site, we had over 300 people participate over the course of 12 different volunteer sessions and we got over 50,000 plants into the grass.

And we're gearing up to finish all the planting this spring.

So May and June, we'll be doing the same thing again.

So it's incredibly exciting and I think it's just something that's really unusual and something that we were able to do I think partially because we're here at Penn State.

That we're able to communicate the value of the educational and experiential value of getting people involved in the construction process itself.

- So I think you just signalled to the audience that the pollinator garden is a big deal.

If you plant it 50,000 plants and you haven't been planting yet.

I know we have short bit of time left and I wanna ask two quick question.

First question, when will a pollinator garden open?

- Well, I'm a little uncertain about that because construction is behind schedule right now and they may had to put it off a little bit because of wet soil, but it'll be open sometime in June.

- Okay.

- For sure.

- Great, wonderful I can't wait.

So last question for each of you just 30 second answer I come back in 10 years, what am I gonna see?

- 10 years all right.

So we're gonna have an extension of the rose and fragrance garden out for Trier house drive bordering the pollinator garden.

We'll have a fountain garden that extends from the fountain down to the marsh meadow.

We'll have probably some gardens between the overlap with our in and what will be the new Palmer Art Museum overlooking that field down toward heartland wood.

And that's a 400 yard stretch that's empty right now we'll have gardens in there.

And some other things too.

But I think by then the what's the coral of the gardens up in the front part of the Mitchell track where the gardens are now I think they'll be done.

- And Sherry you, go ahead.

- Yeah, so I think just to add to that the new Palmer Museum of Art, in Arboretum headquarters building will be about eight years old by that point.

So we'll be all moved in.

(laughing in unison) And we'll be happy to welcome you to that facility which is about to break ground this July.

- I will tell you it is a destination and all of these things will make it even more of a destination as it deserves to be it is just a fantastic asset.

I know we don't have time left I just wanna thank you both so much for joining me and sharing some of the wonderful things about the Arboretum, Thank you.

- You're welcome.

You come back we can plant another tree.

- Yeah okay thanks.

- Thank you, Dr. Barron for being here with me I love the Arboretum I actually just went there yesterday to enjoy some springtime weather in peace and Sherry said students often do.

So I guess my first question would be what would you say to students that don't really utilize the Arboretum And why should they go?

- Well, I think for a lot of different reasons one, it's beautiful.

And you have this feeling that you've left campus and instead you're enjoying this beautiful space.

And there was more there in addition to walk in the gardens, you can walk through the fields and end the woods.

So to be able to be so close to campus, but really be able to both enjoy nature and all of the different plants it's just a relaxing, enjoyable time.

And I will tell you especially this time of year, I think students can can benefit from a little relaxing and escaping for sure.

- No, I totally I totally agree.

I completely just unwinded there, unraveled my head just had there my thoughts to myself when I was there.

I was just so relaxing when I went and gorgeous, especially now so, - It's interesting that that backfield is one of the most common areas where people are sitting on the ground or playing frisbee or just relaxing.

It seems to be an attractor there and it's the park that's facing away from the university which I find interesting, it is an escape.

- Yeah, I know when I was there, there was so many people had blankets down people were throwing a ball outside on that field.

I think it's more like it really is like when you go you feel like you're not really on campus you're kind of away from everything.

I wasn't thinking about school or work.

It was just I'm in nature almost (laughs).

- Yep.

- So why do you think the Arboretum is such an important aspect to the school and for the students, especially with this new extension going on?

Yeah.

- So what I really like is there's multiple purposes.

We heard in the interview, all of the courses that are there.

So this is a natural living laboratory not only to do research, but instead of seeing a picture of something or sitting in a laboratory, you're outside seeing the real thing.

I think that makes a difference.

So here research, the educational and academic part of it and the beauty of it.

As we are learning as it's grown, it's become a bigger and bigger destination.

So it's a part of making State College a wonderful place to live.

So I see so many different benefits.

I'll give you another example many, many people come to a football game.

And they spend two nights, what am I gonna do?

And one of the things they do is they go seek the museums, they go seek an arboretum.

And so I think it just helps make this a wonderful place to visit and to live.

- So thank you for talking to me about this topic I'm really looking forward to visiting after I graduate with the new expansion and yeah.

- Wonderful.

I hope you have a good end of the semester.

- Thank you.

- Support for digging deeper comes from the Penn State Alumni Association, connecting alumni to the university and to each other.

The Alumni Association is powered by Pride, learn more at alumni.psu.edu and from viewers like you.

Thank you.