Natural History of Willamette Univ.
Bill Long 7/16/07
A Disappointing Beginning
Universities exist to teach current and historical knowledge about the world. Certain subjects are, of course, "cooler" than others, and Willamette University in Salem, OR is to be commended for bucking the tide and beginning a classics department and ancient civilization concentration (definitely "uncool") when universities around the country were adding to their business schools and other topics of more "relevant" consideration.
Yet, I have to express my dissatisfaction with Willamette, especially in the area of natural history. We learn by studying things right before our eyes, and some of the most beautiful things right before our eyes at Willamette are trees, bushes and the Martha Springer Botanical Gardens. But, almost nothing is identified as you wander past it. Because learning happens when things are identified for us and we then can go "look it up" online or in books, when things aren't properly identified students, faculty and staff breeze by what is the most beautiful part of the campus without the slightest idea of what constitutes its beauty. The purpose of this essay is to encourage someone at the university to pursue more than a slapdash method of tree and flower identification and cultivation on the Willamette campus. Frankly, the way things are now is quite embarrassing.
The Martha Springer Botanical Gardens
Willamette University has a long history of excellence in the study of botany, especially plants and flowers native to Oregon and the NW. Much of the collection, as I understand it, was given to Oregon State University several generations ago. In 1988 Willamette dedicated the Martha Springer Botanical Gardens. Named after a professor at the school, these colorful gardens are tucked behind the Sparks Athletic Center and to the East of the Hatfield Library. Almost no one in my estimation makes it their aim to try to appreciate the garden. And, the garden, at least at present, is not fully at its potential. I visited it tonight, hoping to enrich my understanding of some of the Northwest's unique flowers/plants, but I came away in disappointment. While many species are identified, we aren't told much about the species which are right before our eyes. The website description of the botanical gardens is, get this, one sentence in length. There is room for literally hundreds of exemplars of plants, flowers, trees and grasses here. It could be a wonderful teaching garden. Why isn't it? I don't know, but perhaps because the garden is out of sight, it is out of mind for most people on campus. Why not clean it up and make it an educational tool? It woudn't take that much effort, and the school would benefit tremendously by the effort.
The Trees of Willamette
Well, after the disappointment of the Springer Botanical Gardens, I decided I would tour some of the trees of the campus. Nothing is identified as you pass the trees, but I found on the campus website the following explanation of the trees of Willamette. About 400 or so trees are listed, with tag numbers, their popular names and their scientific names. Some of the trees have the same tag number, which is quite interesting, inasmuch as many of the tag numbers are not "taken." That is, tag number 104 lists both a Gingko and a Crabapple, while there is no tag number 101, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, etc. You get the picture. I will have to inquire about this interesting phenomenon.
Well, there are no pictures of any of the trees, nor is there a usable map telling us where these exemplars are. There is a map on a nearby page, but it is a rather useless map with respect to learning anything about the natural history of the campus. That is, the map just tells you in general terms where "buildings" or "trees" are. Duh. I guess someone might confuse the two. It wouldn't have been hard for someone to try to correlate the tag numbers with map locations; it really wouldn't have been too hard to take pictures of most of the trees that are tagged. It looks as if someone has just done the most minimal work possible in order to give us a slight semblance of things.
Conclusion
Learning opportunities are all around us, but when those centers of higher education ignore easy opportunities for knowlege, they unwittingly give the impression that there is no knowledge right before us. There will occasionally be a student, teacher or visitor who will appreciate the care taken to make things clear and accessible to visitors. But, at least at this writing, it is very difficult to learn much of anything from Willamette's material about the natural history of campus. Pity. It really is a beautiful campus. I hope that someone would take it to heart and decide to put some care into describing what we see right before our eyes. For if the adults don't do this, how can we expect students to care for careful description of what they learn?
A further essay on Willamette trees is here.
2784
|