Three arboretum certifications awarded in Clinton

By Randy Bell

Pictured at a recent Board of Alderman meeting, MUFC Executive Director Donna Yowell presents a certificate to Clinton Visitor Center Director Marsha Barham recognizing that the Visitor Center has achieved arboretum certification, one of three in the city. The other two are the Quisenberry Library and the neighborhood of Bruenburg.

     The Clinton Visitor Center, the Quisenberry Library and the Bruenburg neighborhood have something in common.  They’ve become the first three locations in the city to receive an arboretum certification – and that’s the most certifications the Mississippi Urban Forest Council (MUFC) has awarded in any city in the state.

     MUFC Executive Director Donna Yowell says an arboretum is basically “a park with trees”.  To earn a certification from the Council, an arboretum must have a minimum of thirty different native tree species.

     “Amazingly, it’s not that difficult,” Yowell says.  “Because, if you think about pine trees and oak trees in Mississippi, there’s a lot of different varieties of those.”

     She notes that Bruenburg is the first neighborhood in the state to be certified as an arboretum.

     “One of the reasons that’s important is because it protects the tree canopy in the neighborhood, because once the site is designated as an arboretum, those trees need to be maintained and protected.”

     Yowell says if a tree dies or is removed, it will be replaced with another native species.

     She’s hoping to continue the certification process throughout the community.

     “Clinton is what we’re calling the ‘First City of Conservation.’  We’re going to certify as many sites as we can.  So, if there are any business owners, property owners [or] farmers in town that want to have their personal property certified as an arboretum, we can do that,” Yowell says.

     In order to be certified, an arboretum must have an educational component.  Each site is required to maintain a list of its trees, including photos and descriptions.  That can be helpful to the public.

     “People can learn more about native [trees],” she says.  “When they’re thinking about planting a tree or landscaping their property, they can use this to look at these trees, look at what the trees require as far as habitat and the amount of care they require.”

     Yowell says the information will more than likely be placed on the City’s website for easy access.

     “It would be a great project for teachers to take their students [to an arboretum] to learn about [native trees],” she says.

     The certifications could attract visitors to Clinton, Yowell says.

     “Our statewide organization, the Mississippi Urban Forest Council, is doing an Arboretum Trail throughout the state.  We’re taking all of our certified arboretums and putting them on a trail system.  So, that’s one more reason to visit a town.”

     At the October 15 Board of Aldermen meeting, Yowell presented the MUFC’s 2024 Scenic Community of Mississippi Award to Clinton, calling it “well deserved.”

     The arboretum certifications are only the first phase in a series of planned environmental projects across the city.  A grant is being sought to create wildflower meadows in the I-20 median, and Clinton has already been approved for an urban farm school funded by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

     According to Yowell, “That’s going to be a site where we teach people how to grow vegetables and fruit in their backyards.”  She says Clinton will be one of the first cities to have such a school.