posted on behalf of UW Student and Arboretum volunteer extraordinaire, Lora Mitchell
This quarter I signed up for an environmental studies course that offered service learning. Upon first learning about the service learning program I was intrigued, but slightly hesitant until I saw a position at the Washington State Arboretum. Thrilled at the idea of working with plants the entire quarter I immediately signed up for that position. 

Posted on behalf of Alyce Flanagan, UW student intern

This spring one of my classes gave me the option of doing a service-learning project instead of writing a research paper. I jumped at the opportunity to gain some sort of real world experience instead of sitting in the library.  I ended up volunteering in the vegetable garden at the UWBG Arboretum, and it has been an enjoyable experience.  

Celebrate Earth Day at the Arboretum on April 22nd from 10am-12pm!
Washington Park Arboretum and Wilderness Awareness School have teamed up to offer a family-friendly Earth Day event. Bring your family, bring your friends and come celebrate the earth, play games, do a small service project and eat yummy earth snacks. 

The Washington Park Arboretum is full of quiet nooks, unusual plants, and hidden groves where our imagination can run free and our curiosity is hooked. Bring your family and come find this special spot!

One of the many engaging courses offered to the undergraduate and graduate students at the Center for Urban Horticulture is the Restoration Capstone Sequence. In this course, students of different academic backgrounds work together to complete a local ecological restoration project. Students plan, design, install, and monitor a restoration project while working in teams over the course of eight months, beginning in fall of each year. 

Holiday shopping got you stressed? Look no farther than UWBG! Gift certificates are now available for classes such as landscape design and mosaic art techniques. Need more gift ideas?

Bioblitz 2011 has come and gone, and like last year I find myself still thinking about how awesome it was a week.5 after the fact.  It’s a lot to pull together and 10 days seems about right as far as decompression goes.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but bioblitzes tap into so many different fibers of my genetic memory.  

With a little over a week away from Bioblitz 2011, the various taxa teams are starting to form, but we still need eyes, ears and hands in the field!  Below please find a new schedule of when we’ll be looking for what. To sign up and join in the fun, contact Patrick Mulligan at simsigan@uw.edu or call 206-543-8801 and talk to Lisa Sanphillipo. 

I had the opportunity to attend two “brown bag lunch” presentations over the past week.  The first was delivered last Friday by a visiting Russian botanist named Valentin Yakubov.  Valentin is a leading scientist at the Institute of Biology and Soil Science, part of the Russian Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. Valentin is a specialist when it comes to the flora of the RFE and was brought over with grant funding from a private foundation as part of a continuing partnership between Vladivostok Botanic Garden and the UW Botanic Gardens.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Each fall, the Washington Park Arboretum Education and Outreach Program provides training for new and veteran guides who lead school field trips and/or Weekend Walks. This fall, guides learned firsthand about current plant-related research at the University of Washington. Hyde Herbarium Collections Manager and School of Forest Resources (SFR) graduate student Katie Murphy spoke about fall plant physiology and offered pointers for leading groups in the field.