Shields Oak Grove turns 50

by Dave Jones
April 13, 2012

PLANT SALES

An arboretum plant sale for UC Davis affiliates only — staff, faculty, students, volunteers, retirees and members of the Cal Aggie Alumni — continues until 6 p.m. today (April 13). Please be sure to bring your ID or other proof of your UC Davis affiliation. If you’re going after work, consider grabbing some gourmet tacos or other tasty treats, including vegetarian options, from the Swabbies restaurant food booth, which is here today only.

The plant sale (3Bs: Birds, Bees and Beneficials, focusing on plants that attract and support pollinators) turns into a public sale Saturday (April 14), from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The sale location is the Arboretum Teaching Nursery, on Garrod Drive, just beyond the Unitrans bus yard south of La Rue Road.

More information.

Acorns from around the world have grown into a magnificent scientific collection and a monumental sight: the Peter J. Shields Oak Grove, dedicated 50 years ago this month in the UC Davis Arboretum.

The university dedicated the grove on April 4, 1962, the day the grove’s namesake turned 100. Shields, one of the university’s founding fathers, died five months later.

Last week, in honor of the grove’s 50th anniversary, the arboretum hosted about 50 people — including Jane Keller, Shields’ niece — for a celebration under the Persian oaks near the grove’s entryway.

The arboretum grew the Persian oaks (Quercus castaneifolia) from acorns sent in 1964 from the Kew Gardens (the Royal Botanic Gardens) outside London.

“They were among some of the first oak grove plantings and they have grown to an exceptional 90 feet tall,” said Emily Griswold, oak grove curator.

The anniversary celebration brought together several people with strong connections to those Persian oaks and the hundreds of other oaks in the collection: people who were there at the beginning, or their descendants in a show of the grove’s multigenerational impact.

People like Professor Emeritus Dick Harris, chair of the arboretum committee at the time of the grove’s establishment; his wife, Vera; and their son Dan, who played in the grove as a child.

The grove's 50th anniversary comes the same year as the arboretum's 75th, allowing Assistant Vice Chancellor Kathleen Socolofsky, arboretum director, to revel in celebrating "with the people who created this place and continue its preservation."

Oak Grove pioneers

The 10-acre grove comprises 297 trees in 92 taxa, making it one of the largest and most diverse oak collections in the nation. The grove is equally significant beyond the United States, as part of the Multisite Oak Collection of the North American Plant Collections Consortium.

The grove’s scientific importance took root in the contributions of the late John M. Tucker, botany professor and oak researcher who also served as arboretum director.

He donated extra acorns from his research around the world, and, in 2001, established an endowment to preserve the grove for future generations. Tucker died in 2008; his daughter, Carolyn Tucker, attended the grove’s anniversary celebration.

The guest list also included Roman Gankin, who worked for the arboretum as a senior botanical garden botanist, and who also played a key role in the grove’s early development and growth. On a collecting trip in Mexico and Central America, he refused to let good-looking acorns get away. Too high to reach? No problem. He fired a rifle to shake the acorns loose.

“Collections as special as the Peter J. Shields Oak Grove don’t happen by accident,” Socolofsky said. “They require the care, foresight and dedication of many people working together with a shared passion for education and conservation.”

Trails tell the story

Griswold, director of GATEways Horticulture and Teaching Gardens in the arboretum, has been working for years on visitor enhancements in the oak grove.

“Shields Oak Grove is a campus treasure — truly a wonderful place to visit, to study, to learn,” she said.

With a $150,000 federal grant, given in 2008 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the arboretum built the 900-foot-long Oak Discovery Trail through some of the most sculptural and impressive trees in the grove. The grant also paid for signs and docent training and programs.

A 1,300-foot addition known as the Oak Diversity Trail winds through oaks from around the world — trees that form the core of the scientific collection.

The Art-Science Fusion Program — involving students, staff, faculty and community members — has provided mosaic artwork in and around the oak grove.

For example, mosaic tiles adorn two curved benches — one called the Oak Circle of Life, the other the Oak Food Bench — at the trail entry. This space has become useful as an outdoor classroom, a picnicking spot and a gathering place for tours.

Not far away, the Oak Family Tree mosaic mural covers the west wall of a restroom building.

Thirty-five mosaic plaques along the trails serve as “beautiful, expressive” oak labels, Griswold said.

Other enhancements include interpretive signs about oak biology and ecology, oak uses in human history and culture, and gardening under oaks; an oak branch sculpture by landscape architecture student John Gainey; and understory plantings of native grasses and wildflowers.

Said Socolofsky: “The legacy of this collection continues among people who are passionate about its importance and conservation — our students, researchers, volunteers, members, donors, the entire UC Davis community.

“These oaks are alive with life and, with such broad support, will continue to thrive well into the future.”

More information

The Peter J. Shields Oak Grove is at the west end of the arboretum. The grove’s main entry is just west of the gazebo, off Garrod Drive where it makes a 90-degree turn just south of the Arboretum Teaching Nursery (across from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital).

The arboretum’s oak collection

GATEways Project