Fullerton Arboretum Partners with EPA
GreenScapes, Botanical Garden to Promote Good Environmental Practices
March 10, 2009
By Russ L. Hudson
The Fullerton Arboretum has gained a powerful new partner in its longtime efforts to promote good environmental practices: the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenScapes Program.
GreenScapes partners with institutions with a strong environmental track record to promote the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste materials in large projects.
“The Arboretum’s educational programs, including a composting class held six times a year in conjunction with local cities, attract up to 100 participants each time,” said Mark Costello, business manager for Friends of the Fullerton Arboretum, “Those public educational programs are what attracted the EPA group to the Arboretum.”
The composting workshops, conducted by Bill Roley, president of Applied Ecological Systems, and Patrick McNelly, principal staff analyst for the Orange County Sanitation District, won the 2003 U.S. Composting Council’s H. Clark Gregory Award for Outstanding Grassroots Efforts to Promote Composting.
“This partnership will be of mutual benefit,” Costello said. “GreenScapes lets its partners and the public know about each other, and we will let the public and area cities know about GreenScapes. This should lead to more participation, more attendance at classes and more Arboretum memberships.
“When GreenScapes holds classes in the area, we can help with the site, parking and instructors, and we promote and advertise the classes to the public,” Costello said.
The 26-acre Arboretum at the northeast corner of Cal State Fullerton has assembled a permanent collection of more than 4,000 unusual plant species from around the world. The grounds include ponds, streams and wildlife. Researchers and educators consider it a living museum of rare and diversified plants, Costello said.
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Produced by the Office of Public Affairs at California State University, Fullerton.