UC Santa Cruz to Close Arboretum with World Class Plant Collections

Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:50 AM
Subject: UCSC Arboretum

Shocking news. They intend to close the UCSC Arboretum. They are doing it by steps to prevent a public outcry. I have been a volunteer there for over 25 years. A world-famous botanical garden. The letter below was written by a member of the staff.
I don't believe this is happening!


They have taken away the only state funded salary the arboretum has - that of our executive director Dan Harder. The decision took effect immediately, leaving Dan no time to come up with a fundraising plan to cover his salary. The university expects to enforce this plan immediately.

2. They are pushing Dan to lay-off 5 arboretum staff essentially gutting the arboretum. So far Dan has refused, and is looking to mitigate and compromise for a solution even though at this point the university refuses to.

3. We feel this is a very shortsighted attempt by the university to effectively shut down the arboretum, not recognizing the true value of the arboretum's collections, or understanding what a wonderful resource the arboretum is to the university and the greater community. They are doing it slowly to prevent a community uprising. If staff are laid off, the collections will go unmanaged, enabling the university to say 'if you can't take care of it, then you can't have it'. It would be easier for them politically to slowly shut down the arboretum, rather than shutting it down in one fell swoop - because they know if it was one fell swoop there would be a community uprising, and bad publicity.

Up until now we have essentially internalized our financial difficulties; the situation has become dire and it is now time to get the word out and rally our support base together.

So what can you do???

Just get the word out - to anyone and everyone in the community. Tell them what is happening here. Write a letter to Chancellor Blumenthal stating your support for the arboretum and its world class plant collections, dedicated to conservation and research. Currently, a number of faculty are drafting their own letter of support for the arboretum.