There are many wonderful things about the city of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. I have many fond memories of my college days there. One of my favorite things both during and after my school days, is walking along the trails and enjoying the beauty of the Nichols Arboretum. For those of you that are not familiar with it, the Arboretum (or “Arb” as it is called by the students) the University of Michigan created a Botanical Garden and Arboretum in 1907 on the land between Geddes Road and the Huron River, just a few blocks from Central Campus on the site now known as Nichols Arboretum. At the time, the property consisted of approximately 80 acres. Today, more than 100 years later, the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum manages over 700 acres of gardens, research areas, and natural preserves around the Ann Arbor area with a complex of conservatory, greenhouses, laboratory, teaching and meeting spaces at Matthaei Botanical Gardens and the James D. Reader, Jr. Center for Urban Environmental Education at Nichols Arboretum.

For me, the Arb was a place to get away from the stress of my studies and take a long walk on a sunny spring or fall day. In the winter, we went sledding, tubing or “traying” on it’s many hills. One such winter afternoon lead to one of my many encounters with the U of M Health Services as they x-rayed a sprained thumb brought on by an extreme traying session. (For those of you who are not familiar with the sport, traying is the sport of sliding down a steep snow covered hill on a tray from the U of M Food Services (i.e. cafeteria).

In the summers, we held numerous picnics, Frisbee games, touch football games or just spent a lazy afternoon laying on a blanket and reading a book. The Arboretum never failed to enchant or excite as it changed with each season. Now, my wife and I, after visiting our daughter, take long languid walks in the Arboretum. We talk about the past, plan for the future and just relax in a beautifully maintained natural space. One of my wife’s favorite parts of the Arboretum is the Peony garden. We make sure to visit the Arboretum in late spring and early summer to see the over 230 varieties of peonies in bloom.

You can imagine my pleasure at reading the other day that U.S Senator Carl Levin (D–Mich.) announced in a July 26 press statement that the Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum are among five Michigan museums that will receive federal grants through the Museums for America program to preserve local establishments.

“Michigan’s Museums are home to many important state and national treasures, and these grants will help share those resources with more visitors,” Levin said in the release. “I am proud these museums were selected out of scores of applicants nationwide, reflecting the great work being performed by these institutions.”

According to the press release, the University will receive $79,658 from the Museums for America grant as well as matching funds provided by the grantee to be used on the “Peony Initiative,” which will provide information on the Internet about the garden’s various peonies. The money provided by the Museums for America grants is only one piece of the peony project, which includes restoration and expansion, among other improvements, that are already several years underway. The Peony Garden was donated to Nichols Arboretum in 1922 by Dr. W. E. Upjohn, founder of the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Peony Garden is home to historic varieties of peonies that were introduced into gardens throughout the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Here is a slideshow of photos from Flickr that are tagged “nicholsarboretum” courtesy of cseeman

[slickr-flickr tag=”nicholsarboretum” id=”7702423@N04″ type=”slideshow” delay=”3″ captions=”on”]

I have written about two of my favorite natural places, the Coral Reefs off the coast of Eilat and now, the Nichols Arboretum, I would love to hear about some of your favorite natural places too?