February 29th 2024
Lakeshore Park Arboretum has been awarded a Level I Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum, for achieving particular standards of professional practices deemed important for arboreta and botanic gardens. The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. Lakeshore Park Arboretum is also recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
Lakeshore Park has a great diversity of trees, including some well over one hundred years old, with over95 labeled species of trees, and more than 1000 individual trees listed in the city inventory for the park. London Planetree, Pin Oaks, and Red Maples lead the count with over ninety individuals each followed closely by Southern Magnolia and Willow Oak with each having over 70 individual trees. Other common trees species include Flowering Dogwood, Black Walnut, Common Hackberry, Chinese Elm, Sugar Maple, Black gum, and Eastern White Pine. Also, the arboretum contains many labeled shrub species.
The Lakeshore Park Conservancy continues to add to the total number and diversity of trees during the implementation of the park master plan. Labels include the scientific and common name for each species and are attached directly to the tree or on a stake at the base of the tree. To date over 560 trees have been labeled. The Conservancy is planting over seven hundred additional trees as part of the Phase 2 Part 1 improvements at the park.