The Tucson Botanical Gardens is a collection of 16 botanical gardens located at 2150 North Alvernon Way, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Although the Garden property dates back to the 1920s, when it was the home of Bernice and Rutger Porter, the Tucson Botanical Gardens were founded in 1964 by horticulturist and collector, Harrison G. Yocum, who opened the cactus and palm gardens at his own home to the public. Meanwhile Mrs. Porter was looking for a way to preserve her house and gardens. By the early 1970s, the Tucson Botanical Gardens moved to her property.
Tohono Chul Park is a 49-acre (198,300 m2) nature preserve in Tucson, Arizona, United States.
Park History
In the 1920s, the entire northwest section of Tucson was considered ideal for growing frost-sensitive citrus and date palms. Maurice Reid owned property from Orange Grove Road to Ina Road and planted it with groves of citrus trees. He introduced black date palms and grapefruit to the property that would become Tohono Chul Park. Groves of citrus trees remained even after Samuel W. Seaney subdivided the area in 1931, calling it Catalina Citrus Estates.
Maurice Reid, acting as realtor for Seaney, sold the future site of Tohono Chul Park to John T. deBlois Wack in 1937. Mr. Wack was an avid polo player from Santa Barbara and a friend of the Reverend George Ferguson, pastor of the newly consecrated St. Philip’s in the Foothills Episcopal Church. Following an afternoon spent drinking mint juleps, the Fergusons and young Gene Reid (future namesake of Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo) escorted the Wacks around the property. The Wacks purchased an 80-acre (323,700 m2) parcel for $16,000 – or $200 an acre (4,000 m²).
Later in 1937, a Santa Fe style house was constructed. The house still stands today as the Exhibit House.
The Wacks actually spent little time in Tucson. Gene Reid and Mr. Wack’s father, Henry Wellington Wack, founder and first editor of Field and Stream, acted as house-sitters. By the end of World War II the home had exchanged hands several times. Clifford Goldsmith, creator of the old-time radio series Henry Aldrich, rented the home at one point.
The Foundations of TohonoChulPark
In 1966, a couple named Richard and Jean Wilson started piecing together patches of the desert that would form the core of Tohono Chul Park, ultimately owning 37 acres (149,700 m2) of the Wacks' original 80 acres (323,700 m2).
The son of a Texas oilman, Richard Wilson is a geologist, trained at Yale and Stanford. With his wife Jean, he came to Tucson in 1962 to teach at the University of Arizona. The Wilsons never occupied the Wacks' old home, but instead offered it to a succession of non-profit organizations as a halfway house or youth residence. It was during the 1970s that the couple was approached several times by developers seeking to purchase the land for commercial development. The couple always refused. In fact, when Pima County condemned a strip along the southern boundary of the property in order to widen Ina Road, Richard Wilson demanded that the county move every saguaro and replant it on their adjacent property.
In 1979 Jean Wilson opened the Haunted Bookshop on Northern Avenue along the eastern edge of the site. Once the bookshop was up and running, the Wilsons began planning trails behind the building and marking the names of the native Sonoran Desert plants with tags. In 1980 they received a citation from the Tucson Audubon Society for saving the desert greenspace and opening it to the public.
The Wilsons then established the non-profit Foundation for the Preservation of Natural Areas in the early 1980s. The purpose of the organization was to promote the conservation of desert regions and to educate the public about arid lands and responsible water use. Over time, demonstration gardens, a re-circulating stream, a geological re-creation of the Santa CatalinaMountains, ramadas and areas with special plantings of arid-adapted vegetation were developed. The Wacks’ original 1937 stuccoed adobe house was carefully renovated in 1984 to provide space for changing art exhibits, a museum shop and administrative offices.
TohonoChulPark was formally dedicated as a 37-acre (149,700 m2) desert preserve on April 19, 1985. The Wilsons deeded the property to the non-profit foundation, Tohono Chul Park, Inc., in 1988. An 11-acre (44,500 m2) parcel abutting the property on the north was slated for higher density rezoning and offered for sale. With the help of longtime park members, Tohono Chul was able to acquire the property. The final acre (4,000 m²) was added in 1997 with the Haunted Bookshop closed and the land it occupied was donated to TohonoChulPark.
The Navajo Nation Zoo and Botanical Park 7 acres (28,000 m²) is a free admission zoo and botanical garden located in Window Rock, Arizona, USA. Set beneath sandstone pinnacles known as The Haystacks, it showcases native animals and plants that relate to Navajo culture, and is the only tribal zoo licensed by U.S. Department of Agriculture. The zoo contains about 30 species of wild animals and birds of prey in natural habitats, almost all of which are native to the Navajo Nation. Its wild creatures include black bear, bobcat, cougar, coyote, elk, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, skunks, and red foxes and grey foxes, as well as cranes, golden eagle, red-tailed hawk, and great horned owls. The botanical park is a native "dwarf forest" of piñon pine and juniper (commonly called "cedar") interspersed with grasslands. Four-winged shadscale is common within the park, as are the non-indigenous Siberian Elms. The park also exhibits a traditional male and female hogan as well as a shadehouse. The zoo recently received an expanded budget and is now a program of the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife. Future plans include: an expanded herpetological exhibit, a native fish aquarium, a brand new red fox exhibit, and expanded educational opportunities. Group tours can be arranged by contacting the zoo. There is also an "Adopt-an-Animal" program and an annual "Zoo Sponsor Appreciation Day."
The Desert Botanical Garden is a 140 acre (20 ha) botanical garden located within Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Founded in 1939, the garden now has more than 21,000 plants, including 139 species which are rare, threatened or endangered. Of special note are the rich collections of agave (176 taxa) and cacti (10,350 plants in 1,350 taxa), especially the Opuntia sub-family. The Desert Botanical Garden has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park is an Arizona state park located in Superior, Arizona near Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. It consists of a 323-acre (1.31 km2) botanical collection that includes a wide range of habitats and a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) main loop walking trail. Founded in 1925, the arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical garden in the state of Arizona. It is jointly managed by the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Inc., a 501 c(3) non-profit organization, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State Parks.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is one of the most visited attractions in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1952, it combines the attractions of a zoo, museum, and botanical garden. Its focus is the plants and animals that live in the Sonoran Desert, and it was a pioneer in the creation of naturalistic enclosures for its animals. The Center for Sonoran Desert Studies, founded in 2005, conducts the educational and scientific functions of the Museum and is a hub for research, education and conservation of the Sonoran Desert. Over 500,000 people visit the museum each year. The ASDM was created by William Carr and Arthur Pack as one of the first naturalistic zoos in the United States.
The Arizona Cactus Botanical Garden was a non-profit botanical garden, located at 8 Cactus Lane, Bisbee, Arizona, USA, containing representative samples of over 800 varieties of high desert plant life. It was founded by David Eppele and has been closed since his death on 19 May 2005. The Garden featured cactus and succulents from high deserts of the Americas. All plants were cold-hardy and grown with no supplemental water. Shade frames and greenhouses contained hundreds of plants under study for hardiness and potential as landscape plants in high Southwestern deserts. The Garden's library contained over 2,000 volumes.
The Arboretum at Flagstaff is a 200 acre (80 hectare) arboretum that is home to 2,500 species of drought-tolerant native plants representative of the high-desert Colorado Plateau, home to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. It is located 3.8 miles (6 km) south of U.S. Route 66 on Woody Mountain Road, on the west side of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. The Arboretum was originally forest and a working ranch, and the home of Frances McAllister in the late 1960’s. In 1981, she began her long-held dream of creating an arboretum when she donated the land and created its endowment. The Arboretum was visited by over 22,000 people in 2007, and in addition to tours of the complex, offers live birds of prey programs from April through October.
from wikipedia.org images from flickr user Dixie Native
from wikipedia.org
