If you are not familiar with the Inglis Falls Arboretum located on Inglis Falls Road just south of the City of Owen Sound, you are missing out! A modern definition of an “arboretum” is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study, conservation, or educational purposes (Wikipedia). An arboretum can play an important role in the preservation and management of trees and provide a place where endangered species can be protected. The Inglis Falls Arboretum is all of this and more. It is also used for meetings, recreation, dog walking, day camps for children, inspiration, and picnics!

Trees from around the world have been planted in a 5-acre section beginning in the 1960s and over the last 20 years, the Arboretum has seen the addition of a considerable collection of woody plants along a 1.4 km trail in a 21-acre section that are native to Grey Bruce.

This beautiful outdoor space is about to get even better thanks to the efforts of the Inglis Falls Arboretum Alliance (IFAA) who have successfully secured a grant for their “Fulfilling the Dream” project. The IFAA is a volunteer committee of Grey Sauble Conservation Authority who help with planning, planting, and maintaining the Arboretum located at the Grey Sauble Conservation Administration Centre. The funding from the Toronto Dominion-Friends of the Environment Foundation grant will help create a more recognizable and educational arboretum through the labelling of tree, shrub, and woody vine specimens. This project will fulfill a 60-year-old dream of having a fully labelled arboretum where anyone can come and learn the identification of trees in our midst and from around the world!

“With the funding available this year from Toronto Dominion Friends of the Environment Foundation, the Arboretum can grow in leaps and bounds! It allows us to source and purchase woody plants still needed for the Grey Bruce section and plant them with help from our community partners. Also, the funding will allow us to have appropriate labelling for the entire arboretum. Labelling will be created to identify and knowledge share with visitors about the amazing things that woody plants have done in the past for indigenous peoples, still do now for all of us, and can do in the future, especially to help mitigate climate change.”– Nancy Brown, Chair of the Inglis Falls Arboretum Alliance.

source: media release, Grey Sauble Conservation