A Tour of the Peavy Arboretum

If you simply studied the web page of the Peavy Arboretum, which is managed by the Oregon State University College of Forestry, you would imagine that here was a tree/plant/shrub environment rich with educational opportunities. First, you would see that the web site for the Arboretum has a plant and tree species lists, a map and an explanation of the map. Second, you would think that since OSU was running it you would have the highest quality effort expended on its maintenance and usefulness to the public. After all, one of the best online plant identification and care guides on the Net comes out of OSU. Certainly the Arboretum would be no different. Third, being aware of the international reputation of OSU's Forestry Department, you would simply conclude that it wouldn't put out public information about what they do which was inadequte, misleading or simply not true.

But such is not the case. In fact, the Peavy Arboretum is, in my judgment, in such a state of neglect at this point that it is relatively useless as a teaching tool. I talked with onsite staff about this point, laid my criticism on pretty intensely, and neither of the two gentlemen who run various programs connected to the Arboretum or the nearby university forests disagreed with me. Thus, I am writing this essay both to bring attention to a significant defect in OSU's fulfilling its educational mission to the public but to encourage it take care of a precious resource for the people of Oregon.

Starting with a Brief Story

A few weeks ago I had a family reunion in Palo Alto, CA. While there I bought Prof. Ronald Bracewell's fascinating book on the Trees of Stanford. In presenting the trees of that great University, both Bracewell and the University guide to trees lists as their # 1 tree a Santa Lucia Fir/Bristlecone Fir, Abies bracteata, which is located in a grove near the Hoover Pavilion. In its online description of the tree, the University called it "the most remarkable of all firs, which is too seldom seen in cultivation." I recall looking at this wonderful tree, studying it, caressing its bark, and throwing my head back to see its top piercing the heavens. So rare is it that they also note only one other example of it in the vicinity, in the front yard of the late horticulturalist and garden writer Albert Wilson in neighboring Menlo Park. It is, in a word, one of Stanford's treasures.

When I was studying the species list in the Peavy Arboretum (before visiting it) I caught my breath because I realized that OSU had an Abies bracteata. I could barely wait to get there yesterday to check it out (I visited the Peavy in late July with a friend but didn't know about the relative rarity of Abies bracteata at the time). In this case I was able to find the tree both because the online guide was correct in locating it and there was a marker on the tree. But when I looked at the tree, which sits about two feet from the well-traveled dirt road going to the forestry cabin and offices, I started and almost cried out. Why? My reaction was, "Oh my, this tree isn't cared for!" Well, I am no dendrologist nor son of a dendrologist, but I said to myself that something needed to be done to prune or protect this tree from the ravages of our day.

Continuing in the Arboretum

My experience with the Abies bracteata put me in a pensive and sad mood, but I wanted to try to to "justice" to the Arboretum before passing judgment. In fact, when I first visited the Peavy in late July I said to myself that something seemed to be wrong here--the markers for trees were often missing, the dividing posts between sections of the Arboretum were often worn or not there, the online grid-system map is not coordinated with the species list so that, as a result, it is very difficult to know what is in any particular quadrant of any of the 57 "grids" on the map. Finally, it seemed to me, so few trees were actually identified that you sometimes really had to search hard for a marker. Then, as often as not, it would be a marker for a Douglas Fir--hardly the species that needs loads of markers in Oregon.

Thus, I wanted to give the Arboretum a "second chance." So I prepared myself for the second trip to Peavy. I decided to take a few hours to create a section-by-section species list from the online list of plants and trees. In other words, the only thing that is online is the Latin (or English) name of the species and then the various locations in the Arboretum where that species is allegedly found. So, for "Austrian pine," for example, the "English first" explanation has: "Austrian pine Pinus nigra L8n, L8s, L8e, L8w." But if I wanted to deposit myself in L8 and look around, I had no idea what else I would find. Thus, I found myself going through all 150 species they list (the list isn't exhaustive, as I discovered a Pacific silver fir, for example, that isn't listed) and every time I found an L8, I put it on a growing section-by-section list of species I was making up. It seems that someone would have taken care to do this before me, even though it took some work. So, lest you think that I just "showed up" yesterday, I went to the Arboretum "armed" with maps, species list, my own section-by-section list and a heart ready to devour all that OSU had to offer here.

When I arrived at the Arboretum, I first took a lot of time trying to "get my bearings" (it really is quite difficult to do so with the somewhat haphazard way that the arboretum is marked) and understand the layout of the place. I recall pacing off the distance between markers (about 75 yards), trying to orient myself to the direction of the layout and even saying outloud, "Ok, Here is H7; here is G7; this area then is G8..." I began to try to coordinate my section-by-section list with the "facts on the ground," as they say in the Israeli-Palestinian relations. But I quickly gave up for four reasons. First, hardly any of the trees are marked and almost no plants/shrubs are labeled. Thus, though I have a good idea on what a number of trees are, I knew it would be a bit of a pain to go from my list to their (unidentified) trees/shrubs. Second, it was anything but clear where a particular section ended, since so many identifying posts are missing. Third, when sections were marked, I often found trees put in incorrect sections, thus making my day a sort of "correct as you go"-day. Then, to top it off, I realized that when making up my section-by-section map of the species of the Arboretum that 21 of the 57 sections were supposedly completely empty. That is, no species were listed for well over 1/3 of the sections of the Arboretum. I could understand how few species might be listed for one or two sections (such as where there was a big parking lot), but for 21 of them? Then I saw that whoever had first done the work either had flagged in zeal or had not had clearly in mind what he was doing. When he got to a thicket, he seemed to get himself in a thicket of problems, because he stopped identifying. Actually, I think that an ability to "work through a thicket," identifying and clarifying, is a tremendously valuable skill both in trees and plants and in almost every other problem in life.

Conclusion

Lest you think that my trip was valueless, I want to say that some of the tree identifications are not only helpful but are things from which I can learn. I am glad to know the difference between an Eastern and Western Red Cedar (the former are marked in D7/D8). I was delighted to find a marked Macedonian Pine, a few American Hornbeams, and a few Alaska Cedars. With these marked trees I could try to sort out differences between Alaska and Port Orfords, between American and European Hornbeams, etc.

Thus, the germ of helpfulness is there at the Peavy. Now, however, someone has to develop an educational vision for the place. If one is not developed, we are not only betraying the vision of the Peavy's founders but are disrespecting the people of Oregon.

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