Environmental Education

The importance of bees, the lifecycle of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly, the history of Putah Creek, the benefits of a rain garden—these are just some of the topics covered by the new interpretive signage coming soon to the Arboretum GATEway Garden and Putah Creek Parkway explore.

UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden’s grounds and landscape services team have started irrigating our younger trees with slow-release watering bags—a fancy description for those big green zippered sacks starting to appear at the base of young trees throughout campus.

If you are looking for your next favorite plant, you will be blown away by all that’s new in our fall inventory. For those of you in the market for our traditional “staple” plants, fear not! We will always grow our core selection of regionally appropriate species. The Arboretum All-Stars you know and love will always have plenty of table space reserved.

Citizen scientist Ria de Grassi confirms discovery of a new larval host plant for buckeye butterflies.

Four out of the five weirs for Phase 1 of the Arboretum Waterway Maintenance and Enhancement Project are complete, and the last weir should be finished by the end of September. This means we are very close to being able to return water to the channel and watch the water flow over the new weirs and through the wetland plantings.

UC Davis Hummingbird GATEway Garden demonstrates how to create dedicated habitats to support hummingbirds year round, sheds light on the importance of the hummingbird population, its decline, and the work being done at UC Davis to help support them.

The first weir has been built. Now it has walls, a spillway, and wetland retaining walls on the upstream and downstream sides of the weir. This series of weirs, along with the pump and underground pipe that will move water along the length of the project, are the structures that will transform the Arboretum Waterway from a flat pond to a flowing waterway.

More updates on the Arboretum Waterway Maintenance and Enhancement Project: splash pad concrete poured, weir creation begins, new Learning by Leading Student Co-Coordinators

The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden maintains and operates the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve, several hundred acres along 5.5 miles of Putah Creek on the UC Davis campus. The university utilizes this riparian and grassland ecosystem for teaching and research purposes, wildlife and habitat protection, and community engagement.

How to create a pet-friendly garden with plants that enrich your pets' lives and your garden's aesthetic.