Outside

Perhaps you didn’t even know you had one. The Orland E. White Arboretum was officially designated as such for the citizens of Virginia by the state in 1986. It is a part of the Blandy Experimental Farm, a 700-acre research center of the University of Virginia. But when you get ready to go, don’t head to Charlottesville. Turn further north to another exquisitely beautiful part of the state—Clarke County, in the northern corner of the Shenandoah Valley between Middleburg and Winchester—to enjoy a living museum of the largest collection of woody plants in the mid-Atlantic states. And while you are there, you can have lunch on shaded picnic tables in a serene setting of natural beauty, bird watch and learn about environmental conservation.

The Blandy Experimental Farm has been a part of UVA since 1927, when Graham Blandy, a New York stockbroker, left the University 700 acres of his estate, the Tuleyries. The first director, Orland E. White, a plant biologist, started the plant collection that became the Arboretum as we know it today. His successor, Ralph Singleton, a plant geneticist, first began to invite the public to come in and kept the field station very much alive until 1965, when the Biology Department, considering the future of their research to be in cellular and molecular biology, withdrew their programs. “Blandy was essentially mothballed,” says its current director, Dr. Dave Carr, “until around 1983, when Ed Connor saw many applications for his students and great potential for public education and outreach” in his discipline and so persuaded UVA’s new Department of Environmental Sciences to adopt it. As director, Connor hired two full-time scientists, who brought in their graduate students and revived on-site academic courses; at the same time, Blandy’s first educational director began its K-12 program.

Today, undergraduates from all over the country come to live in the research village and get their first big chance to conduct their own research with a mentor. The traditional missions of large-scale research and environmental education remain primary, but by increasing the focus on investing in innovative programs for public education and outreach, directors are trying hard to create a synergy between the two. Candice Lutzow-Felling, the new education director, hopes to create a bridge between local schools and Blandy’s outdoor laboratory. Current ecological programs range from seed germination to worm activities. New interactive computer stations aid in identifying plants from the collection, alocating them on a marked map and even providing a printout to facilitate learning.