The Belser Arboretum has received three awards in the past month from habitat restoration/educational programs from the City of Columbia/Columbia Green organizataions. The Arboretum staff wishes to thank our Sherwood Forest Community partnership for their volunteer help with these projects.


The awards include:

November 11, 2009: Tree Grant Initiative from Columbia Green ($610.00 grant to purchase 7 sizeable canopy trees for the Arboretum Tree Restoration project.

November 11, 2009: Columbia Green/City of Columbia Choice Awards: Award of Special Merit, "for providing an invaluable gift to both USC and Columbia" . . with projects "that have significntly enhanced the appearance and qualitiy of life in the City of Columbia."

November 23, 2009: City of Columbia/Columbia Green: Treasure Tree Award designation for the grove of giant tulip poplars in the Arboretum central valley.

The Treasure Tree Award will be presented on the lawn of the Governor's Mansion on December 4, 2009 at 2:30 pm; a representative of SFN community is welcome to attend, and will be recognized at the cerremony. We need the name of the representative by 4 pm Tuesday, November 24 in order to have it entered in the award text.

Fence restoration projects, November-December 2009

The Arboretum "Project Fence Clearing" has now completed removal of brush for 1 foot on either side of the Arboretum fence over a distance of about 1,500 feet, leaving 1,100 to finish. A color map of the Arboretum and bordering homes is posted at the Bloomwood and Wilmot gates. The large pile of brush at the Brookshire driveway (removed from the 1-foot zone on the Brookshire side of of the fence) will be picked this week. We will soon be planting native evergreen hedge plants about 3 three feet back from the very exposed fence visible from the Bloomwood/Pointsettia corner. In addition, the breaks in the fence caused by falling trees will be repaired.