Dr. Patricia DeCoursey, Co-ordinator for USC Arboretum Restoration, provides an update on what is currently going on with the Arboretum restoration, including announcement of the next Arboretum open house on August 19th.


Dear Friends:

Thank you for your kind understanding of some of the problems of the
exceedingly challenging restoration of the Arboretum. In this initial
stage that nears completion, I am working 7 days a week clearing the
devastating brush that had almost swallowed up the forest in the 50
preceding years of benign neglect. The quantity of brush is great enough
that we do not have room on the CANDO garden border to pile the brush
for city pick up. Just last month, for example, when we piled on the
street border, the city machines tore up a large section of the garden,
pulling out dogwood trees and other very expensive ornamental bushes. At
that point the only remaining place to pile the brush was at the end of
our property beyond the trees and shrubs. We certainly hope that you can
understand the need to dispose of the brush for a short time more in
order to finish the restoration of the Arboretum

We hope to complete this massive brush clearing in several months. Then
we enter the tree planting stage, which will entail moving the 5-foot
new replacement trees from our nursery beds to restore the forest. At
that point we will be able to do almost all of the ground maintenance
with our marvelous machine, a bush hog. It looks like an oversized lawn
mower, but chews up the brush into mulch. In the final stage, the mature
trees and new seedling trees will “close the canopy” with their leaves
and the weeds and brush will no longer be able to grow in the dim light
at ground level.

We hope you will come on our August Open House Day, Sunday afternoon
August 19, 2007 from 1-4 pm to see the progress and enjoy the beauty of
the Arboretum. Especially in the new cypress swamp, you can see the tiny
6-inch seedling trees that were planted in November 2005 have grown in
two years to almost 10 feet in height. Similarly, in the Pine Plantation
you can see the fragile 1-foot seedlings now grown to 12 feet high,
bushy and beautiful. It is a lovely sight and will increase in beauty
and ecological value with each passing year. The Sherwood Forest
Community members also tell me frequently that the Arboretum
improvements have also increased their property values significantly.

If you know of anyone eager to help in the restoration, please contact me.
Any help will shorten the time that we will be piling brush on the
street.

Sincerely,
Patricia DeCoursey, Co-ordinator for USC Arboretum Restoration
dcoursey@biol.sc.edu
777-3934

NOTE: Brochures about the Arboretum are available in the mailbox at the Bloomwood Road entrance.