Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991 TAG: 9103010509
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY WALKER/ SPECIAL TO ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The arboretum at William Fleming High School isn't much to look at yet: 38 puny, leafless shoots, each half-buried in a bed of mulch.
However, Carole Massart, biology teacher and head of the science department, hopes that from such humble beginnings will spring a grove of trees that will aid in the science education of future William Fleming students.
At first, Fleming's teachers only wanted to plant a few trees. Gradually the idea for a full-fledged arboretum developed.
"We wanted to plant some native trees so the students could have somewhere to go identify trees without us having to haul them off to a forest somewhere," says Massart.
Massart initially tried to buy seedlings from area nurseries, only to discover they don't sell native trees. Then she met Rob Trickle, forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry.
Trickle, who is area/community forester for Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem, was speaking to a group of science teachers about a project called Re-Leaf Roanoke Valley. The project's goal is to plant one tree for every resident of the valley - some 226,000 trees.
To publicize Re-Leaf, Trickle agreed to donate Forestry Department seedlings for the Fleming arboretum. Lest he be deluged with requests for free trees, Trickle explained that the Forestry Department doesn't normally give away trees.
"It was a special project to show native trees and how they grow. When we do something like that it would have to be for educational purposes," he said.
Most of the seedlings were grown in a Forestry Department nursery in Augusta County. They range from 1 to 3 years old. Seventeen native species are represented, including mulberry, black walnut, red maple, ash, cypress, gum, and a variety of pines and oaks. The three non-native species are Norway spruce, Scotch pine and sawtooth oak.
The seedlings were planted in December on a plot of less than an acre near Camper Hall, the Fleming science building. Students from Keith Brown's groundskeeping and custodial services class did the work.
Trickle showed the students how to put the seedlings in straight, how to orient them, and how far apart to plant them (about 10 feet). Mulch was provided by the city.
Having been carefully planted and mulched, the seedlings stand a good chance of survival, Trickle said - especially since there are no deer around to nibble on them. However, while they're small, there's always the chance they might be inadvertently trampled or mowed.
To counter that possibility, the arboretum was situated on a slope that's out of the way of students going to and from the bus ramp. Each seedling is marked with a red ribbon that heightens its visibility and serves to identify the species.
There was no need for an arboretum when Fleming was built in 1961. Then, the land surrounding the campus was still semi-rural and there were plenty of trees close at hand for biology students to study.
However, the woods gradually fell to developers' saws. Now, "we are in an urban setting and we don't have access to a deciduous forest," Massart says.
Thus the arboretum - the only one Massart knows of among area high schools.
The arboretum does not yet have a formal name. However, "we want to come up with some idea to commemorate it, a bench or a marker or something," Massart says.
Fast-growing pines were included so science students will have something to look at in two or three years. However, the arboretum will take decades to truly mature.
"I hope that as it grows, generations of students will use it," Massart says.
by CNB