During the current fiscal year, Arboretum staff have enjoyed remarkable success securing grant funding. Most recently, Rob Burton, president of Kentucky American Water, presented The Arboretum with a check for a $30,000 grant from the American Water Foundation to build the Wolf Run Watershed Educational Boardwalk. This project will allow the construction of a 150-foot boardwalk and trail network through the 1.7-acre wetlands section of our new 5-acre pollinator habitat. These wetlands form the headwaters of the environmentally critical Wolf Run watershed, a 10-square-mile watershed in southwest Lexington. 

The boardwalk will become a central element of a trail system allowing visitors to experience the unique natural beauty of the wetlands and pollinator habitat while also learning about its environmental significance. The boardwalk will traverse a low-lying section of a forested swale. Interpretative signage throughout the boardwalk will inform visitors about the plants, animals and hydrology of the location, enhancing community engagement and education and highlighting the important environmental role this watershed plays in Lexington. 

The Arboretum has worked closely with faculty and students from UK’s Department of Landscape Architecture to design the boardwalk and trails. We have also partnered with UK Engineers Without Borders, a student organization, to survey the site and develop specifications for construction.  

We are grateful to our longtime partner, Kentucky American Water, for this transformational grant to The Arboretum.

Grants make possible innovative programs, projects and improvements that are beyond the scope of our base operating funds or charitable giving. We have already been awarded over $200,000 in grants this fiscal year. Grants are defined here as all funding from organizations outside the University of Kentucky for which we were required to submit a competitive proposal. While grant totals are not always reported comparably from year to year, grants received this year are an order of magnitude greater than the average grant dollars per year over the last decade.

Significant grants this year include the American Water Boardwalk project described above. This will greatly magnify the impact of earlier grant funding received for initiation of the Pollinator Habitat project. Another major project, Tree Collection and Canopy Growth at The Arboretum, will be funded through Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government's Lex Grow Trees program. And another LFUCG grant through the Council allowed the acquisition of essential equipment following our reorganization of grounds operations earlier this year. Our seasonal student intern program has received essential support from grants distributed by the UK Student Sustainability Council.

Several members of our staff deserve credit for this outstanding record of success. Jesse Dahl, Dave Timoney and Hannah Wells have all demonstrated great leadership and initiative in building this portfolio of projects. Jess Slade, our former curator, began the work to secure two of the major grants listed above. Continuing success with grant funding can be a high-impact strategy for advancement of facilities and programming at The Arboretum.