Weed party helps Jasper Arboretum start to take shape
By GEORGIA PURDY Newsboy Correspondent

MARY LOU FAIN cuts back some dead foliage and removes weeds along the east wall of Jasper Public Library. Newsboy photo/Georgia Purdy

On a recent sunny morning, a group of ladies, donned in hats and gloves met outside the Jasper Public Library. No tea party or fancy luncheon for this assembly, but a weed party - down on hands and knees weeding the butterfly garden on the east side of the building.

"Is that a weed," said Audrey Hudson.

Hudson was promptly given a clipboard and paper to draw a diagram of the garden and instructed to chart the placement and name of each plant.

"I'm a city girl," she said, laughing. "I don't know the flowers from the weeds. That's why I'm the secretary. I can write."

This group, members of the Board of Directors for the Jasper Arboretum and Sandy Creek Nature Trail, Inc., a non-profit organization, take their mission seriously.

After the city of Jasper purchased seven and a half acres along the south side of Sandy Creek for the purpose of extending the existing park, the budget did not allow moving forward with the plan. As a result, the Woman's Civic Club voted to take on the project and also include an arboretum and nature center to run along the creek from South Main east. Since those plans were first publicly unveiled in May of 2004, this group has worked to make it a reality.

Because the arboretum will take in areas east of main, including the Beatty Orton House, public library, fire station, Kiwanis Park, and land adjacent to the creek donated by First National Bank, it is an enormous project that will take a number of years to fully develop and will depend on grants and donations.

But this group isn't waiting years to begin; they are forging ahead even though funds aren't yet available to establish all of the gardens in the plan. Estelle Debney, president of the group, says that a large number of donors has made it possible to at least begin.

Temple Inland, Mobil Oil (through their retirees), Walmart, and Milam Street Gallery, and The Woman's Civic Club are among the donors. In addition, there have been a number of individuals who have contributed.

"The City of Jasper has also helped us enormously," Debney said. "They got a grant to clean the south side of the creek after Hurricane Rita. That saved us tons of money."

Some of that help has come in the form of active participation and donated plant materials.

"Pickles donated plants and provided labor for the dry garden," Debney said. "Christy Seale, who has a degree in horticulture from S.F.A has done a lot of the planting and maintenance. We pay her for some but she has also donated her time.

"Louisiana Pacific planted crepe myrtles on the east side of the library and the Lakes Area Rose Society enlarged the rose beds in front of the library and Rayburn Bloomers donated bulbs. In addition, Temple Inland donated 200 trees and the Texas Forest Service planted them."

One of the biggest challenges at this point is getting all of the necessary water lines and sprinklers installed.

While some of that has been done, there are still a number of designated areas that do not yet have water.

"Our biggest need right now is water," Debney said. "We also need to install lighting. We would love to have a sprinkler system and lighting by Christmas, but it takes a lot of money. One lamp and pole runs about $1,000."

Establishing an arboretum in an enormous project, but as Dr. David Creech, who directs the Mast Arboretum at Stephen F. Austin State University, told a recent group of Jasper visitors, "This isn't something you can do all at once. My students and I started this one in 1985, just two lines of plantings behind the agriculture building. The first time we had a plant sale, no one came except my mother and she didn't buy anything."

Creech, who has advised the Jasper group since the beginning, said that today the arboretum draws some 25,000 visitors to Nacogdoches.

Board members say Jasper's arboretum will provide many benefits to the community.

"It's a great value to the community," Mary Lou Fain said. "For one thing it provides beauty and an arboretum is also educational. I think it will be a great tourist attraction and help the community in an environmentally friendly way."

Education is one of the purposes of an arboretum, which is not merely a flower garden but a collection of plants from around the world. S.F.A.'s Mast Arboretum, for example, currently operates a 'hands-on' educational program for school children.

Beautifying the community is also a goal of the Jasper group.

"I like to help out," Mary Horn said. "I want to make our town beautiful and it will bring visitors. It's a good feeling to walk around and see something beautiful."

The idea of a place and a project that can involve the whole community is another prevalent theme.

"I think it's a project that anyone in this town can enjoy," Mary Ellen Eddy said. "If you can get yourself down here, you can enjoy it. Parks and arboretums are good for our health. In all of the years that I've walked Sandy Creek Park, I've met people that I wouldn't have met otherwise."

In addition to an advisory board, member s of the Board of Directors, which also includes Denise Milton, Lillie Weatherspoon, Mary Alice Debney, and Samia Botros, are assigned various tasks and areas to oversee.

At some point in the future, Jasper Arboretum and Sandy Creek Nature Trail, Inc. will have to hire a horticulturist to oversee the project, but grants and donations are not yet sufficient to do that.

In the meantime, volunteers are shouldering the responsibility.

"We got a lot of donations in the beginning, but those are down considerably now," Debney said. "We always need money because you can't operate without funds. We could also use physical help- people willing to donate their time to work on the areas already landscaped, to help with maintenance on a continual basis."

Citizens have an opportunity to help with a project designed to benefit the entire community and surrounding area. And it isn't necessary to be a plant expert. Like Audrey Hudson, who says she marvels at the beauty in nature, it only takes a love of beauty and a desire to create a place that many can enjoy.

Persons wishing to help may contact Estelle Debney at 384-7505.