Parks & Rec
Photos By Teddy James Phillippi
W. Va.’ s own Botanic Gardens
By Teddy James Phillippi Only two things are guaranteed to us all in life, change and entropy. Things will always change, but left to their own devices those same things will surely deteriorate.
We must tend to our garden and work the land, for this land is our domain.
These words echo a sentiment passed on through generations for time immemorial; we all belong to the earth and the earth belongs to all of us.
The staff at the West Virginia Botanic Garden in Tibbs Run Preserve near Morgantown along with the trail angels embrace lasting constructive change and keep entropy at bay.
With summer upon us, the garden’ s fantastical flora bloom for a new cycle amongst the dendrological devastation
8 � DESTINATIONS � JUNE’ 25 left behind by spring storms. The remnants of collapsed trees that litter the woods of West Virginia are abundant and the Botanic Garden’ s woods are no different.
Thanks to the work of volunteer trail angels, the site director receives daily updates when trees fall on the garden’ s grounds. These trail angels, comprised mostly of retirees and folks with spare time, report to Phil Cole the site director for the West Virginia Botanic Garden.
Trail angels are just some of the many people who comprise the WVBG community that Cole speaks of glowingly each day, and he’ s been with the Botanic Garden for a decade now.
Phil said that the most profound thing he learned from his experience working at the Botanic Garden was that a designer must embrace what they have and work for the land instead of against it. Constant change is inevitable according to the laws of nature, so we must work with the change and not in spite of it.
“ The Garden’ s property is comprised of a mixed deciduous, hemlock and rhododendron forest,” according to its website.“ Trees as old as 250 years can be found growing here.”
Hemlocks are under threat from the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that has killed most northern Hemlock forests.
“ We have a very significant and healthy population of the species and we have chosen to treat them and will continue to as needed.”