By Taylor Bruce, The Seattle Medium
Taking advantage of the non-rainy days, many people go out for a walk, ride their bikes, or take their dogs out on the twisting paths of the Washington Park Arboretum, part of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens (UWBG).
With the implementation of new staff in the past year and a half, and new practices internally and externally, UWBG staff say they are working on tangible steps to create a space that is diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible for all.
UWBG staff are working with a variety of different forms of diversity, one of which being the plants themselves. UWBG displays over 40,000 individual specimens on top of natural species, and is home to plants that are representative of many cultures.
One use of culturally significant plants is featured in the forest bathing walk, a practice called shinrin-yoku in Japanese that involves experiencing a walk in nature with all of your senses. These walks occur at UWBG once a month and end with a tea ceremony made from western red cedar leaves, a tree used by the Coast Salish peoples.
“The bark of the western red cedar was very cool in the way tribes harvest that bark to be used not only for making canoes but also clothing, diapers, and part of their construction of homes,” said Thuy Luu, AmeriCorps member serving UWBG adult education programming. “The tea is used almost like ibuprofen in the sense that when you drink it it has a great ton of medicinal properties…The leaves are stewed, I know folks from Muckleshoot that create balms and salves using the leaves.”
A variety of barriers have excluded individuals from access to public gardens such as UWBG. For example, they are often located in predominantly white areas, which comes with assumptions about access and who deserves to be there. Also, many public gardens require fees or membership for entry. Events and classes may also include fees, which end up creating spaces dominated by older white individuals, according to Luu.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down a large variety of activities, many people turned to green spaces, such as those offered by UWBG. However, open access does not necessarily equate to inclusion.
People must work to create truly inclusive spaces, according to Andrew Stevenson-Asaki, community outreach coordinator for UWBG. To do this, UWBG is focusing on a variety of ways to improve their organization.
“Internally there’s some good work happening in the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility space, trying to build our DEI muscle and to start to really look at making changes that will improve our hiring practice and our employee recruitment and retention. So that’s kind of the big focus for the next year.” Christina Owen, director of UWBG said.
UWBG is not only looking within their own institution but also to public gardens nationwide about how they can be reflective of communities and also in how they physically represent communities, according to Stevenson-Asaki.
One tangible way they are working on representing communities is through the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, which is located at the Center for Urban Horticulture. The library currently has three full-time staff members, and sees a variety of clients from UW, other academic institutions, as well as individual community members interested in plants, gardens and birds.
The library staff is working to provide more culturally diverse resources for their patrons, such as search categories through their garden of cultural diversity and garden of cultural diversity for youth, according to Laura Blumhagen, youth collections and outreach librarian for the library.
UWBG staff say they are working externally to create partnerships with community groups in underrepresented communities and individual community members to ensure their work is authentic, meaningful, culturally aware and relevant, Stevenson-Asaki said.
On top of this work, UWBG is consistently looking for new perspectives and voices, as well as volunteers. People who are interested can apply to volunteer for a variety of positions on their website, ranging from a forest school assistant, gardener, plant health assistant and restoration volunteer.
For indoor activities, The Graham Visitors Center (GVC) located at 2300 Arboretum Drive E
Seattle, WA 98112 is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Elisabeth C. Miller Library located at 3501 NE 41st St., Seattle, WA, 98105 is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of Sunday (closed), Monday (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and Saturday (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.)
Visitors can explore the Washington Park Arboretum and The Center for Urban Horticulture during daylight hours, free of charge.
“I believe that Seattle is absolutely worthy of a world class botanic garden, and that is what I’d love to see us do and become,” Owen said.
