Understanding the Battle for the Soul of Washington Park Arboretum

By Paul Gibson of the Arboretum Park Preser

Once upon a time this was a big sign in the Arboretum...

and these were the small signs.

Of the thousands of people who visit Washington Park each year, few are aware of the dissatisfaction of arboretum advocates with the status quo. Directors of arboreta from the Bronx Botanical Garden to the Yakima Arboretum have taken pains to publicly state that an arboretum is not a park. No doubt such affirmations are necessary due to the park-like qualities inherent in an arboretum. But any serious arboretum buff knows that an arboretum is not a park. It is a museum. It is a collection of exhibits, to be studied and admired, but not played within. The resemblance to a park is incidental.

Then, a few years ago we got some bigger signs--two of them, in fact, to let us know we were in the Witt Winter Garden.

But in the Washington Park Arboretum we have something different: we have a hybrid, both arboretum and park. Though we call it "the Arboretum," most of us treat it like a park. We run. We picnic. We play infomal games. On the rare occasions when it is possible, we sled or ski. We also casually observe the collection of woody plants. But most importantly, we simply stroll, drawing energy and spiritual sustenance from the natural surroundings. No doubt there are also those who visit the Arboretum explicitly to examine the plant specimens. But they are a relatively small part of the total. All available data, both rigorous and casual, confirm that most visitors to the Arboretum have not come to visit a museum. They have come to be in a naturalistic environment in the heart of the city.

The signs for individual plants and trees got bigger, too.

The tension between park user and arboretum advocate rests in the fact that in this dual-purpose facility, both arboretum and park, the management rests in the hands of the minority constituency. The nine-member governing body, the Arboretum and Botanical Garden Committee (ABGC), has six members from either the University or the Arboretum Foundation. These are people whose professional and/or avocational lives are centered on the Arboretum. Naturally they aspire to improve the arboretum function of Washington Park wherever possible. A person who assumes the title Director of the Arboretum or President of the Arboretum Foundation does not do so hoping only to pass on to his or her successor exactly the same institution with which he or she started. On the contrary, each one hopes to build a greater arboretum. And a greater arboretum, it seems, often means a lesser park.

And then very recently, in the middle of Azalea Way, appeared the Valley of the Signs.

In the case of the presently proposed master plan for the Arboretum it means buildings, parking lots, shelters, intrusive signage, and expansive programs. The Graham Visitors Center complex would be expanded to 2.6 times its present size. A new building and companion 60-car parking lot would appear in a totally unbuilt area in the southeast of the park. A 600-square foot shelter with permanent locked storage capacity would grow on Foster Island. The ABGC revealed its scorn for the naturalistic qualities of the park by recently allowing installation of a sign in the middle of Azalea Way that is four feet wide, six feet tall, and can be read from thirty feet away. It is tastefully trimmed in purple. All this is the content of the scaled back, revised version of the master plan the ABGC first presented three years ago and enthusiastically endorsed.

Now a small sign is waist high and measures 2 feet by 3 feet...

The University and Arboretum Foundation dominate the management of Washington Park. They enjoy the advantage of long term, ongoing organization, and professional advocacy. There are people, University professors and Foundation employees, whose job it is to nurture and develop the narrow goals of the arboretum. The majority users don't share significant mutual acquaintance, ongoing organization, or professional advocates. They only coalesce every twenty years or so when faced with a huge and tangible threat cobbled up by the other side. Given these realities it is inevitable that someday the struggle will end with a fence, admission fees, rules governing comportment of the visitors, and no doubt world renown. But that doesn't have to happen this time.

and a big sign is six feet tall, four feet wide, and can be read from 30 feet away. Maybe the smart move at this time is to buy stock in a sign company.

If City Council can be made to understand that the cost of a world class arboretum in Washington Park is Washington Park as we know and love it, then this time, for another twenty years or so, we can preserve the balance between a fine arboretum and a WORLD CLASS PARK.

Find out how you can help save the "park" in Washington Park Arboretum at www.scn.org/arboretum or by calling 323-1851 to get on the mailing list of the Arboretum Park Preservation Coalition.

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