Get Involved in Developing an Arboretum on Sequoyah Hills’ Public Green Space

Neighbor Doris Gove has suggested a neighborhood arboretum for the public land in Sequoyah Hills, and the board of the KP-SHA supports her idea. A biologist and nature author, Doris knows her trees and says that our public areas have more than 30 native tree species and would more than meet the criteria for an accredited Level 1 arboretum.

Knoxville has several arboreta including Dogwood Elementary School, North Hills, and of course the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum and the UT Gardens on the Ag campus. An arboretum can be a valuable public resource—a place where students from elementary through graduate school can learn about and study trees. Older residents may remember that from 1931 until the late 1940s the Sanford Arboretum occupied 20 acres on northeast end of Sequoyah Hills with over 2500 plants native to Tennessee.

For arboretum status, trees in the public areas would be identified, labeled, mapped, and listed on a website with more information. The type of labeling used for labels will not damage trees. We would coordinate with the new Urban Forest Master Plan, under development by the City of Knoxville and Trees Knoxville, and with KUB, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, and the Tennessee Division of Forestry as partners: https://www.knoxvilletreeplan.org

To launch this project, we will need a committee of interested residents to begin planning and building support, and to set up a structure for continued monitoring. The committee could also plan publicity and educational events.Some costs would include labeling (minor, because other local arboreta have a label-printing machine that they are willing to share), possibly an accreditation fee, and webpage fees. Knoxville Forester Kasey Krouse is in favor of this project and would help us.

If you are interested in working on this project, please sign up at the annual meeting in April or email Lisa Carroll (lcarroll@icx.net).