Arboretum News

The Donald E. Davis Arboretum received a Spirit of Sustainability Award from the Auburn University Office of Sustainability. Winners were announced at the first annual Spirit of Sustainability Awards ceremony on April 16. The campus-wide awards program was established to recognize Auburn University students, faculty, staff and alumni that exemplify the Auburn spirit by demonstrating accomplishments promoting sustainability on campus or in the community at large. Over the past several years, the arboretum has committed to educating the campus community and the public about the relationship between land use, land cover and the impacts of stormwater runoff. The arboretum implemented numerous low-impact development practices, including an integrated system of pervious parking and walkways, small- and large-scale rainwater harvesting systems, rain gardens, an innovative network of underground stormwater detention, and a self-guided Water Tour of these innovations.

The 2013 Arboretum Photo Contest is over and it's time to announce the winners!

It's time to gather your entries for the annual Arboretum Photo Contest! Please enter those photographs that give us the amazing selection of images to choose from for our Arboretum calendar.

The Donald E. Davis Arboretum is home to more than 500 species of native-Alabama plants. Many factors work to sustain the plant life in the arboretum, including sunlight and nutrients from the soil. Perhaps most important to plant survival, however, is water. Vegetation at the arboretum receives water from a variety of sources, including irrigation, and, most often, rainfall. While rainfall is a much needed resource for plant life, it can also be a destructive force on ecosystems, resulting in erosion and even death.

The fall 2012 Arboretum Days events will be held on Sept. 8, Sept. 29 and Oct. 13, at the Donald E. Davis Arboretum at 9 a.m. Arboretum Days is an approximately one-hour educational program designed for children ages 6 to 12 that features a nature-themed learning activity. The fall programs represent a series where each event builds on the next, however, programs can be attended separately. The final product of the series will be a permanent mosaic urn in the Arboretum featuring diverse insect and leaf creations done by Arboretum Days participants.

The Donald E. Davis Arboretum 2012 photo contest winners were announced on April 20. The contest, a collaborative effort between the arboretum and the Department of Art, featured nearly 100 entries that were judged in five categories including: Davis Arboretum, Birds and Mammals, Other Wildlife, Flora and Landscape. A People’s Choice award was also presented, allowing the public to participate.

As the College of Sciences and Mathematics Donald E. Davis Arboretum prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it has other big news to also celebrate. The Auburn landmark has been recognized as a member of the North American Plant Collections Consortium, or NAPCC, Multi-Site Quercus Collection, or MSQC. “This recognition of the arboretum's oak collection is really exciting for the university,” Dee Smith, curator of the Davis Arboretum, said. “It integrates Auburn University into a national organization of collections and increases the visibility of our research and conservation efforts.”

In the wake of the poisoning of Auburn University's beloved, more-than-a-century-old, tradition-rich oak trees at Toomer's Corner, Forestry graduate student Nicholas Martin believes the Auburn Family can take solace from the fact that it is the campus-wide collection of trees, and particularly those in the Donald E. Davis Arboretum, that will leave the most significant and lasting impact on current and future generations of Auburn students and the community.