About

The Grove

Teachers

Credits

About This Site

A Gift From Millennium Green

In an effort to promote tree planting and tree awareness in the United States, the White House Millennium Council, and Dan Glickman (former Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture), gave each Governor 100 vouchers for historic tree seedlings form the American Forests. The Urban and Community Forestry Coordinator, Paul Revell, offered 25 of these vouchers to the BRCC Arboretum. Our Millennium Grove is a registered planting with the Millennium Green tree planting initiative.

Scouts Plant The Trees

	Mike and Joe McCue contacted me about the possibility of completing a project at the BRCC Arboretum that will go toward completing some of the requirements for Mike to earn his Eagle Scout promotion. I suggested installing the Millennium Grove and Mike jumped right on the project.
	Mike assisted in preparing the planting site and then single-handedly organized a large team of volunteers made up of scouts from Troop 52 and parents. The planting went so smoothly that the trees were all planted in one morning, even with my insistence that the holes be 5 times as wide as the root ball of each tree.	Click here for a list of the trees and the scouts responsible for planting each tree :-)
	As part of the project, Mike also installed a very sturdy, and attractive, bench that looks out over the Millennium Grove. Visit the Southern Magnolia planted in honor of Juliette Gordon Low to learn more about the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and to see images of the scouts responsible for planting these trees.
	What a difference a year makes. The upper image on the left was taken soon after the planting (June 10, 2001), while the image on the right was taken on May 18, 2001.

Virginia Department of Forestry

Paul Revell, the Urban and Community Forestry Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Forestry, probably was the first person to envision the Millennium Grove in our college’s arboretum. Being familiar with the arboretum, Paul suggested such a grove when he offered the 25 vouchers in late winter 2000. Two grants were funded from the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Grants Program to

• purchase equipment and materials to maintain the trees for the next three years
• purchase and install granite markers to permanently identify each tree
• support research and development of on-line educational materials and activities

Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation

In order to make the Millennium Grove accessible to everyone, the BRCC Educational Foundation has provided the necessary funding to construct a wheelchair path throughout the grove. The path will be constructed with crushed sandstone which will be in the best interest of individuals with disabilities and the trees since it will provide a porous surface to allow water and air to move through the soil/root profile. Also, crushed sandstone will "shift" to accommodate the roots as they continue to expand. 

Blue Ridge Community College

Founded in 1967, Blue Ridge Community College serves the residents of the Central Shenandoah Valley. Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, VA Just off of I-81 at exit 235 (see location of Weyers Cave campus). 

Blue Ridge Community College Arboretum

To learn more about the arboretum please visit our web page.  

The best way to reach me would be by e-mail at brmurrj@brcc.edu 

Please keep in mind that we are still in an early formative stage. As the trees grow, the site will continue to become more established. Several trees did not survive the transplant shock and are being replaced. Construction on the wheelchair path should begin in January of 2002. I strongly encourage educators to first visit the site to make sure it will suit your needs before arranging a field trip. The BRCC Arboretum offers a number of other learning opportunities in addition to the Millennium Grove. These learning opportunities include:

o      a rain garden  

o      several research plots (Chestnut Research Plot)

o      a large collection of native tree species

For more information of how teachers can use the Millennium Grove see the Teacher’s page.