{"id":10313,"date":"2015-04-09T00:53:52","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10313"},"modified":"2015-04-09T00:53:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:53:52","slug":"aurora-community-arboretum-keeps-on-truckin-into-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-community-arboretum-keeps-on-truckin-into-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Community Arboretum keeps on truckin\u2019 into 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly 10 years, the Aurora Community Arboretum\u2019s passionate team of volunteers have been armed with the mission of beautifying Aurora \u2013 and they have no intentions of slowing down now.<\/p>\n

As the horizon on the first decade of their 10 year contract with the Town of Aurora nears in 2017, many of their plans are just ready to burst into fruition, but these horticulturalists \u2013 professional and amateur \u2013 are not content to rest on their laurels. <\/p>\n

For their annual investment in the Arboretum, which cuts a green swath starting just north of Wellington Street East and John West Way, stretching northwest to St. John\u2019s Sideroad and Industrial Parkway North, Aurora gets a significant return on investment, said the Arboretum\u2019s Irene Clement, noting their efforts have added significant \u201cnatural capital\u201d to the area.<\/p>\n

Since their formation, the Arboretum has planted 1,500 trees and shrubs of 630 different species and varieties. In last year alone, 223 flowering trees and shrubs were planted just in Flora Aurora, a stretch of the Arboretum behind the Aurora Family Leisure Complex that over the next year or two will form an annual burst of colour for all to enjoy. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to create Flora Aurora and I think we can say it is now completed,\u201d said Ms. Clement. \u201cThe core plantings were finished by the end of 2014 and that means from 2007 when we started this project to the end of last year, we planted 1,600 flowering trees and shrubs that make up 300 species or varieties. Hopefully we\u2019ll have a good show to put on. We don\u2019t know how the winter survival was because it was quite a long winter, but hopefully it survived well and we\u2019ll have our first show in another year or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of the Flora Aurora area, the number of plantings extended to 915. Their goal in recent years has been to stock growth in an economical way. They try to be cost effective in buying specimens when they\u2019re young and raising them in their nurseries until they are ready to plant. Currently, there are 888 examples of new stock just waiting for their time to shine. <\/p>\n

As successful as they have been, however, Mother Nature has been slightly less cooperative. Invasive species continue to be a problem and maintenance projects will be ongoing into this year, with the help of specialists, to try and get rid of the vegetation choking the growth of many of its neighbours.<\/p>\n

To get this, and other projects for 2015, off the ground, they hope to do so with a new dedicated utility vehicle at their disposal. Arboretum volunteers are currently limited to \u201cone or two\u201d private vehicles available to them to do the work that needs to be done. A vehicle that meets all their criteria has been quoted at $23,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all volunteers, we love trees and nature, but the majority of us are not experts in these things,\u201d said Ms. Clement on entering into a $40,000 contract with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority for their expertise and services. \u201cThe Arboretum has used local skills and leveraged our volunteer effort to enhance the value of this great natural resource in the heart of Aurora. Some of the specimen trees are growing very well, some are not. Some will benefit from some extra care. We need specialized extra help to assess the health and growth of our specimen trees and to do what needs to be done to assist them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis expert help will not only be hands-on, but will also train and help oversee our volunteers to do more value-added work. In addition, the contract will also help with outreach, ecotourism, and promotion by developing and doing more guided walks. It will help the Arboretum Board to plan for the future, help us envision the goals for the next 10 year contract.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For nearly 10 years, the Aurora Community Arboretum\u2019s passionate team of volunteers have been armed with the mission of beautifying Aurora \u2013 and they have no intentions of slowing down now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/2015-04-09-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Gl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 23:38:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}