Hayes Arboretum
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The Hayes Arboretum 500 acres (2 km²) is an arboretum located at 801 Elks Road, Richmond, Indiana. It is open free to the public during daylight hours on Saturday.
The Arboretum is an educational facility and a managed nature preserve, collecting native wild plants indigenous to Wayne county and the Whitewater Valley Drainage Basin (an area encompassing 14 counties in west-central Ohio and east-central Indiana). It now includes 172 species of trees, plants and shrubs native to the basin, as well as a renovated 1833 dairy barn, Beech/Maple Trail (3/4 mile), Habitat Trail (1 mile), Springhouse Trail (1/5 mile), Fern Garden Trail (329 feet), and History Trail (1 mile).
The Arboretum was first established in June 1915 when Stanley Hayes began purchasing tracts of land to preserve the local old growth Beech-Maple Forest. He began reforesting the land, planting thousands of native trees and creating experimental plots, hoping to restore the land as when the first pioneers arrived. His estate now includes:
- Beech-Maple Forest - trees up to 450 years old. Approximately 60 acres of old-growth forest are located within the Arboretum grounds.
- Oak-Tulip Experiment - White Oaks and Tulip trees, planted in 1922-23 as an experiment in hardwood reforestation.
- Mabelle Hayes Fern Garden - an under story of dogwoods in this area, with a fern garden featuing ferns and their allies native to the Whitewater River valley, including 20 species that have been naturalized along the trail with a variety of spring flowers. A few of the ferns are evergreen and in evidence all year long.
Although not native to the Arboretum, the Arboretum includes the geology collection of a former Earlham College professor Dan Kinsey, who donated his collection in 1968. It contains at least one example of every type of rock native to Indiana.
[edit] Development
The Arboretum has provided the community with access to hiking trails, bird watching, nature education, and much more. In 2004, the foundation, having struggled with money in recent years, determined that it should sell off 33 acres of the property that borders US Highway 40 for retail development. The foundation stood to clear several million dollars through the sale. In order to complete this plan, they sought to have the parcel rezoned for a planned unit development.
Many of the longtime users (they actually used to be called "members," but it is not clear what they were members of) were outraged by the proposal, noting that the foundation had made little effort to raise the funds through other means before moving forward with the sale. A group of citizens banded together to block the rezoning, and the whole issue ended up at the steps of city hall. After several contentious meetings, the Democratic mayor, Sally Hutton, vetoed the rezoning, putting the sale on hold.
The foundation then turned and sued the city of Richmond for over 8 million dollars. The litigation resulted in an agreement to reverse the veto and permit the development of the 33 acre parcel. In exchange, the foundation will enter into a 40 year covenant not to develop any additional portion of the Arboretum.
In October of 2005 the acreage was clear-cut for development before the anti-sale group Friends of the Arboretum were able to find a judge to issue an injunction so that litigation could continue with a separate civil suit.
