Birding Walk
Embark on a birdwatching tour in the Arboretum’s landscape with docent and birder Donna Sullivan. This two-hour tour is suitable for adult beginners as well as more experienced birders.
Embark on a birdwatching tour in the Arboretum’s landscape with docent and birder Donna Sullivan. This two-hour tour is suitable for adult beginners as well as more experienced birders.
Many are aware of Charles Sprague Sargent’s role as first director of the Arnold Arboretum, establishing it as the world-renowned institution it is today. Far fewer are familiar with how his close relationships and prolific correspondence with figures of national and international prominence in the developing fields of botany, horticulture, forestry, and wilderness preservation or his leadership of seminal public sector projects such as his path-breaking survey of United States forests for the 1880 US Census shaped the American landscape far beyond the Arboretum’s walls. Docent Paul Eldrenkamp will lead a tour that explores the far-reaching influence — then and now– of the Arboretum’s first director.
Black swallow-wort is a highly invasive vine in the U.S. and Canada, but in Europe it grows benignly, kept in check by a number of insect herbivores that only live in that part of the world. But what if we could bring one of those insects to New England? Could it control this highly invasive plant? Professor Lisa Tewksbury from the University of Rhode Island has released a number of Hypena opulenta moths in the Arboretum to see if it would control the black swallow-wort here, and now it’s time to return to that part of the landscape and see if the experiment has worked. Join Professor Tewksbury for a Research Spotlight to learn about her work and see if we can find evidence of Hypena opulenta larva on the black swallow-wort plants here.