MERIDIAN, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – The EMBDC hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday morning for the Bonita Lakes Watershed Arboretum.
The Arboretum is featured on one of the primary trials winding around the upper lake and consists of identification tags and QR codes on 85 different species of trees and woody plants.
“We’re hoping that this, as people walk the trail, you know, they see the signs, they scan the QR codes, they start to learn the differences and the intricacies of the trees that are here,” said President of the Meridian Tree Commission Angela Barnard.
“It tells you the Latin name, the genus, the tree family, it’s characteristics, you know, does it produce and edible berry, or what’s it’s leaf color in the fall. So, it gives you basically a bio of that tree,” said Barnard.
The new attraction was developed by the Meridian Tree Commission using seed money from Meridian resident Ollie Wilkes to secure a grant.
“Mr. Ollie Wilkes is from this area, has worked in this community for decades, and he saw a need from his own passion for trees, and took the steps forward to make it happen,” said Barnard. “People can make a difference. The everyday person can impact their community, you know, you just find where your passion lies and go in that direction.”
The purpose of the Arboretum is to primarily promote plant education.
“In our 21st Century world, we spend so much time inside that a lot of our younger people don’t really have a sense of the natural world around them. So that is part of Mr. Wilkes’ vision is that this would be a place for education,” said Barnard.
The Mississippi Children’s Museum – Meridian is already working to help educate area children on the area with their Bonita Lakes Watershed exhibit in their health gallery.
“We have a section of that that represents the Bonita Lakes Watershed, so it’s a super fun water table experience where children can race a stationary kayak and experience a little bit of the outdoors – indoors, but we love pointing people to come over here to the Bonita Lakes area and experience it in real life,” said Barbara Zeller, Executive Director of the Mississippi Children’s Museum – Meridian.
Laura Carmichael, Executive Director of Visit Meridian Tourism said this is a great opportunity to promote local eco-tourism.
“From a tourism standpoint, we look at Bonita Lakes as one of our hidden gems in the community, so we’re already promoting it, but now from an eco-tourism standpoint, we’re really excited to be able to have that to promote as well,” said Carmichael. “You know, from an education standpoint, school groups, people who are traveling, college students maybe who are enrolled in those classes can come and learn more, and it’s just a great resource for us.”
Organizers of today’s ceremony said there’s room for those interested to get involved.
“The Meridian Tree Commission has seats open, and we need to fill them. If you live in the City of Meridian and you are passion about trees, we need you. You can contact the Community Development Office and they’ll put you in contact with me or Mr. Kevin Locke, and we can go from there,” said Barnard.
