Story and photos by Stephanie Lambirth
What started out as an overcast and possibly rainy Sunday common to Eugene turned into a sunny day full of learning, art, and music at the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum. With the help of hundreds of volunteers, the annual Wildflower and Music Festival went off without a hitch on May 19th.
The Mt. Pisgah Arboretum is a stunning natural area just a few miles outside the Eugene/Springfield area that is part of the larger 2,363 acre Howard Buford Recreation Area , located between the Coast and Middle forks of the Willamette River. Mt. Pisgah Arboretum is a non-profit organization occupying 209 acres that have been vigorously transformed into a natural park and teaching area. Visitors to the Arboretum can enjoy miles of hiking trails that weave among native plants and habitats.
The Wildflower and Music Festival brings together several educational venues and non-profit organizations that focus mainly on wildlife and restoration. Together they provide an extensive variety of educational booths and tables while also supporting the arboretum. “This whole event is a big community fundraiser for the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum,” Tom LoCascio, Caretaker and Site Manager for Mt. Pisgah Arboretum, says. “[The Arboretum] is developing these 209 acres as an outdoor educational interpretive museum that highlights the native flora and fauna of the southern Willamette valley.”
One of the main attractions at the Wildflower festival is a huge display of native plants and flowers inside the on-site pavilion. Each plant has a card identifying it by common and scientific name, along with other unique characteristics. “It has become a huge educational venue,” explains LoCascio. “Field botany and biology classes from Lane Community College (LCC) team with experts from the Native Plant Society to actually go out and gather specimens of cut flowers from the coast range, the valley here and in the cascades.”
Stephanie Barbuto, an LCC student who was busily writing down notes, was at the festival in order to conduct class research. “I like having all these plants out here to be able to see what they are, so when I see them growing, I know what’s what,” Barbuto says. “I’ve never been to the Mushroom Festival, so I’m going to come to that one next.” The Mushroom Festival is also hosted by the Arboretum and takes place annually in late October.
In addition to the wildflower display, the event boasted an expert’s table, where people from the community could bring plants for identification, and a microscope table for up close looks at some of the specimens. Seven different bands provided live music, and several plant vendors sold everything from heirloom vegetables, to odd and exotic plants, to native trees and wildflowers for planting in the yard.
Throughout the day, festivalgoer’s had the opportunity to hike the arboretum’s trails with an expert guide or take a self-guided tour through the Art in Nature exhibit. “This year we had about sixteen artists that came out and created landscapes in the woods using mostly wild organic things like sticks, flowers and natural-dye paints,” LoCascio says. The Art in Nature exhibit was inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist known for his unique and temporary art created in nature with found and collected natural objects.
The festival was also very family-friendly, with an entire tent dedicated to kids’ activities and projects. Educating youth is a big part of what the arboretum does. Every weekday, Mt. Pisgah hosts a formal educational program for kids in the 4J school district. Kids come with their schools and are broken into small groups of 6-8 and taken on guided educational hikes. “We take them on hikes through the arboretum covering subjects like habitats, life cycles, and water cycles,” Tom Bettman, a longtime volunteer, says. “We are also working on a system of signs so adults without guides can find their way around and learn something, but right now our educational program is much more highly developed, we have been doing that for thirty years. I’ve been doing it for twenty. That’s what I do is teach kids.”
Although the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum has been around for years, many people have not yet discovered the offerings of this recreational area. The arboretum is open 365 days a year for the community’s enjoyment and is a great place to get out into nature without having to go far out of town. In the fall they host the Wild Mushroom Festival, which boasts the same educational aspects as the Wildflower Festival, just with a focus on fungi. The Wildflower Festival is an annual spring event, and Mt. Pisgah is a great place to visit any day of the year, whether it’s just to walk the dog or do some serious nature hiking.
