Arboretum Fosters Hands-On Learning, Community, & Connection

Now, thanks to the hard work of trustees, employees, and students since the idea emerged two years ago, the School has a Level 1 accredited arboretum to help community members and visitors enjoy these natural wonders.

A Seed is Planted
Inspiration struck when Trustee Kate Bulkley ‘77 saw Sherley Young ’57 accept the Chatham Hall Distinguished Alumna Award in 2022. In her remarks, Young talked about her experience starting an arboretum in Philadelphia, PA, and Bulkley asked her how difficult it would be for Chatham Hall to create its own. Young’s response was immediate: “Chatham Hall has enough varieties of trees already; all it takes is a leader to get it done.” With Young’s encouragement, the Chatham Hall Arboretum Task Force was formed.

“I’ve always thought the Chatham Hall campus is beautiful, and I believe that we have a duty to steward our trees and tree canopy,” explained Bulkley. “An arboretum is about the beauty of the trees and also, increasingly, about the importance of sustainability.”

Trustee Jennifer Gammill McKay ’84, P’20, whose family created The Crosby Arboretum in Mississippi, and Molly Davis ’79, director of The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, also happily joined the task force.
 
Ideas Take Root
The task force performed a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and presented a proposal to the Board of Trustees, which embraced this tree stewardship project. After securing board approval, the task force identified on-campus champions, including Beth Barksdale, director of entrepreneurship and dean of the Chapel & Spiritual Life.
 
Students in Barksdale’s Global Entrepreneurship classes readily embraced the project and quickly began driving it forward in fall 2023. They crafted the arboretum’s mission statement and objectives, and helped identify which species should be included in the first phase of accreditation before researching and creating fact sheets for each. The arboretum’s objectives include fostering wellbeing through nature, facilitating hands-on learning, provoking curiosity about the world, and encouraging sustainable environmental practices.
 
Student Learning Grows
During the fall semester, the Global Entrepreneurship students not only learned teamwork and project management, but also gained an introduction to botany.
 
“How do you identify a tree by its bark?” Barksdale asked. “What are the different leaf patterns? How do the flowers and seeds vary from tree to tree? Which trees grow well here? Which trees are native here? How do you care for them? How do you preserve them?”

“Chaplain Barksdale walked with us throughout campus on many different occasions, teaching us to identify the trees and showing us how to photograph them for the fact sheets. She also organized us into collaborative groups so that we could manage all the data we were collecting,” said year-two Global Entrepreneurship student Yuyang “Vicky” Gao ‘24.
 
With help from Wolf Josey Landscape Architects, who previously created the School’s Tree Framework Plan*, students drafted Chatham Hall’s application for the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation, which was submitted in December 2023 and gained approval the following February. Level 1 arboretums are required to have at least 25 identified species of trees, and the Chatham Hall Arboretum currently has 27 species with more additions anticipated.
 
Cultivating Engagement Through Nature
Designing the arboretum’s visitor experience was another opportunity for student learning.
 
“The students wanted our arboretum to be an interpretive educational experience,” Barksdale said. “To that end, we developed the idea of engagement stations that would incorporate our peace garden, pollinator garden, and an area with bluebird houses as resting places along the way.”

All the designated trees in the arboretum have stand-alone signage which includes the common and Latin name and a QR code to access its custom fact sheet.
 
“This approach allows each tree’s story to come to life,” said Barksdale. “There is information about the tree unique to Chatham Hall, which might include who donated the tree or for whom it may have been dedicated. It might also include a historical story that has taken place familiar to the past and present Chatham Hall community.”
 
Quotes from literature and sacred texts offer another form of engagement.
 
“Students wanted to ensure that each tree also had a quote so everyone touring the arboretum encountered the vast appreciation for trees that have stood the test of time,” Barksdale added.

An Arboretum Blossoms
The entire community, including students, visiting alumnae, and local residents, gathered on Earth Day on April 22 to dedicate the new arboretum. The festivities included workshops for students, a public keynote by Davis, performances, student-guided tours, a tribute by Town of Chatham Mayor Alisa Davis, and more. Following the dedication, the Chatham Hall Arboretum is now open to the public during the School’s regular operating hours.
 
Bulkley believes that this project not only benefits the community, but also connects to Chatham Hall’s broader mission.
 
“It’s not just about getting good grades, it’s about making capable young women who are taking care of themselves as well as taking care of the world,” she said.
 
This project is part of a larger master plan for the campus, which includes adding more wildflowers to bring the meadows back to their natural state.
 
“It’s been a fun and engaging project for students, and everyone involved. I believe that with proper support, it will be around for a long time,” said Bulkley. “With such enthusiasm from the students to launch the whole thing, it’s created a meaningful legacy for current and future generations to come.”

Learn more about the Chatham Hall Arboretum at www.chathamhall.org/arboretum.


*Tree steward Robin Hanes ‘73 introduced Wolf Josey Landscape Architects to Chatham Hall when she commissioned them to develop a Tree Framework Plan in 2016 to guide the School with respect to its planning and care of trees on central campus.