What do
you think of when you hear the word "arboretum?" What exactly does one
do in an arboretum? I mean, there are trees, presumably, and you look
at the trees, maybe?
If your reaction to "arboretum" is something like that, then you haven't been to the Flagstaff Arboretum, which
will open for the season this week on April 1. There are an amazing
array of activities, workshops, projects and interesting little
get-togethers year round at the Arboretum, all in the name of enjoying
and protecting the fabulous native plants and wildlife of Northern
Arizona.
The Arboretum will, jump right into its calendar of events with a family-friendly exhibit called Bugs at Work,
a fascinating display of living and preserved spiders, insects and
other things that creep and crawl in our region and beyond. Those not
freaked out by things with more than four legs won't want to miss the
Live Bug Zoo on April 8, where you'll have a chance to interact with
the critters and learn from NAU entomologists Robert Delph and Neil
Cobb. Bugs at Work is a collaboration between the Arboretum and the
Colorado Plateau Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity.
Opening weekend also features a reading and discussion of the writings of Aldo Leopold,
the name sometimes spoken in the same breath as Thoreau in discussions
of nature writers. Credited with reshaping modern thought about
conservation and land stewardship, Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is a
classic among conservationists, policy makers and regular-Joe nature
lovers alike. He did much of his work as a young Yale forestry graduate
around Arizona, which in turn helped him refine his thinking and become
inspired about communicating his ideas to the general public. The
presentation takes place on April 1 at 3 pm. Selections from A Sand
County Almanac will be read by T.J. McMichael of Prescott, who studied
wildlife management under the direction of one of Leopold's former
students at the University of Arizona.
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