Over the past fifty years, garden clubs, businesses, and alumni and friends of Penn State Behrend have added to the arboretum.
The first major gift was from the Carrie T. Watson Garden Club, which donated flowering crabapples in 1952. When some of the trees had to be removed in the early 2000s, the Class of 2006 funded the replanting of new varieties. Since then, several classes have chosen to leave a lasting legacy of beauty by purchasing trees or funding landscaping projects.
Other notable donations include:
- A grove of hybrid chestnut trees donated by the American Chestnut Foundation.
- A gift from Maxine McDougal, a campus administrator, in 1999 to purchase lifetime identification signs for fifty trees.
- The 2007 commissioning by Jeffrey Kochel of the Ethel Kochel Garden on the west side of the Irvin Kochel Center.
- More than 100 trees added to campus with funds from a Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant through TreeVitalize and EnvironmentErie.
If you’d like to purchase a tree in memory or in recognition of someone who has made your world a more beautiful place, please email Amy Hopson, assistant director of stewardship, or call 814-898-6345.