Trees in the Sequoyah Hills Arboretum include sycamores, sweet gums, hackberries and black elders of various sizes.
“This Level 1 Arboretum will be used for scheduled tree walks, scout projects, school outings, and other educational programs on the value and beauty of native trees,” according to the ArbNet website.
Joe Deatherage installs arboretum signs on trees at the newly designated Sequoyah Hills Arboretum. Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press
Among the volunteers now working on signs for those trees is Doris Gove, author of nature focused children’s books like “My Mother Talks to Trees,” “One Rainy Night” and “The Smokies Yukky Book.” She spearheaded the effort for the arboretum designation including writing the proposal.
“It’s kind of complicated to get it certified,” she said. A group of volunteers went around to identify 25 different native tree species to East Tennessee, the number needed for Level 1 certification. She said, however, that volunteers will be labeling about 45 tree species total now. Gove said the neighborhood could aim for Level 2 Arboretum status with that many species, but said she’s not interested in that herself.
Gove said her goals in getting the arboretum certification included education and neighborhood pride. She pointed out the neighborhood also included Sequoyah Elementary School.
“I’d like to do educational programs with the kids,” she said referring to that school’s students.
As of Sunday, Gove said volunteers had “just started” but had finished tagging trees in Whitlow-Logan Park, another city park in the neighborhood that’s also part of the arboretum now. She said she hoped to later put up a large sign for the arboretum as a whole.
Gove may be coordinating the project, but she’s eschewed any formal title for herself or others.
“I am not a very organizing type of person,” Gove said. “At our very first meeting I could have set it up with officers and things. I didn’t do that.”
Funding for the tree signs and sponsorship for the application came from the Kingston Pike Sequoyah Hills Association. Gove recommended anyone who wants to help the arboretum project make donations to that organization and note them for the Arboretum. If you want to learn more about how to help, email Lisa Carroll at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..