The Washington Park Arboretum – Go “Behind the Greens” in a free Zoom event this Giving Tuesday
A 230-acre urban oasis of trees, gardens, wetlands, wildlife, and trails, the Arboretum is not only a unique Seattle community resource but also a regional treasure containing one of the finest plant collections in North America. With vibrant science education, cultural, and volunteer programs, its mission is to bring plants and people together to cultivate a more sustainable, inspired, and just community.
Created in 1935 and designed by the celebrated Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm, the Arboretum is a dynamic partnership between three entities: Seattle Parks and Recreation, which owns the land and buildings; the University of Washington Botanic Gardens (UWBG), which owns the plant collection; and the Arboretum Foundation, which helps fund it all.
The Arboretum is also a rich community of people: visitors, enjoying recreation and serenity in nature; students, young and old, learning about the vital importance of plants and ecosystems; horticulturists, caring for the plant collection and the safety of visitors; and volunteers, providing vital assistance with everything from ecological restoration to help with special events.
A small but mighty non-profit, the Arboretum Foundation keeps this amazing place free and accessible to all by raising funds through its membership program, private donations, and various grant-based partnerships. It funds the arborist team that climbs the trees and keeps them beautiful and healthy, as well as the salaries and benefits of many of the UWBG staff horticulturists. It provides key funding and financial assistance to the UWBG environmental education program, which connects thousands of local school kids to nature each year.
The Arboretum Foundation organizes the cultural programs at the Seattle Japanese Garden on the south end of the Arboretum and ensures that many of these are free to the public through its Free First Thursday and Free Family Saturday initiatives. It raises capital funds for new gardens in the Arboretum—such as Pacific Connections, where Unstill Life hosts its Wednesday and rainy-day workouts—as well as other enhancement and restoration projects. It also recruits the many volunteers that help keep this special place humming.
Please consider a donation to the Arboretum Foundation this Giving Tuesday to help sustain your Arboretum. Thanks to a matching fund of $12,000 from our Board of Directors, you can double the impact of your gift this year!
Giving Tuesday is an annual day of radical generosity and community celebration, dedicated to the power of giving back to the causes and organizations that help our world become a kinder place. It began in the U.S. in 2012 as an antidote to Black Friday and Cyber Monday and has since morphed into a global phenomenon, spread across six continents.
This year’s event lands on Tuesday, December 2, and many wonderful and worthy local non-profits will be asking for your help. One of them is the Arboretum Foundation, which has been providing crucial support to Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum for 90 years.
In the spirit of the event, we’ll be hosting a FREE, virtual, behind-the-greens tour of the conifers of the Arboretum, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm (PST) on Tuesday, December 2. UW Botanic Gardens tour guide Cynthia Welte will host the presentation and inspire you to explore the Arboretum’s prized collection of pines, firs, larches, cypresses, and other trees. Learn more and register.
Niall Dunne is the communications manager and Bulletin editor at the Arboretum Foundation.
First image by Libby Lewis
Second image by Anne-Phyfe Palmer
