May 22, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Upcoming Arboretum exhibit puts visitors in the treetops
by Kristin Pazulski

In today’s green-conscious society, being a “tree hugger” has become trendy, and while trends have nothing to do with the Morris Arboretum’s, upcoming exhibit, “Out on a Limb: A Tree Adventure Exhibit,” it is sure to attract both tree huggers and those looking for a quick escape into nature — and it includes a tree to literally hug!

“Out on a Limb” will be, as it is described, both an exhibit and an adventure. The exhibit’s 275-foot walkway will literally allow visitors to walk among the high branches of the trees at the arboretum. The walkway begins at the existing asphalt path in the arboretum’s forestland, and will ascend gradually up a handicap accessible ramp until visitors are walking among the treetops.

“It’s going to be quite an adventure,” said Bob Gutowski, director of public programs and the main contact for “Out on a Limb.” “Some kids, or even some adults, who never thought they’d be in a tree can go in and get the experience.”

But while the trip along the walkway will be an adventure, Gutowski made it clear that the academic and environmental education parts of the exhibit are just as important.

“Even though it’s an adventure, it’s an exhibit,” Gutowski said. “It’s not going to be a thrill ride, even though it will be thrilling.”

Throughout the walkway there will be informational panels, guides to answer questions, binoculars and even hearing cones so that visitors can catch the warble of a certain bird or the rumbling of the nearby Wissahickon Creek. In addition, the arboretum’s current tree-related exhibits — the Stumpery and the Log Cabin — will be the ground-level part of the exhibit.

“We are always in our cars, or on the computer, or playing video games, and are so removed from any connection to nature that any dose of this is intense, like 100 nature walks,”” Gutowski said. “Your senses wake up.”

Gutowski said the exhibit is not only about experiencing a walk among the trees’ branches, but also about teaching how trees affect our climate and community.

“What we do in our community affects the drinking water and it can be good or bad,” he said. “One way to help make the effect good is trees.

“The children coming here are going to be voters one day, and they need to have a concept of nature.”

Although most of the thrill in the exhibit comes from just being so high up in the branches among the singing birds and scampering squirrels, there will also be some interactive displays for families to enjoy and visitors afraid of heights to counteract their fears.

There is a bird’s nest that hangs suspended from the walkway, kind of like a hot air balloon basket, so visitors can experience what it is like to sit in a nest on a slightly swaying tree branch (because yes, it will sway).

There is also an Indiana-Jones-like slightly moving suspension bridge that leads visitors to the basket.

And then there will be the scampering net, called the “Squirrel Scramble,” which Gutowski said will be a hard netting — similar to that of a tennis racket but strong enough to hold up humans. Visitors will be able to walk on it and look down 44 feet to the forest ground.

“You share a deep experience with the animals that live that high,” he said. “There’s a sense of adventure, a sense of danger, without actually being in danger.”

All of the walkway will be enclosed, he said, by nearly transparent steel netting ensuring further safety.

Visitors to the exhibit will see mostly beech trees, ash, poplar, nyssa black gum and Japanese maple — the latter were left over from the former Japanese Garden that surrounded the arboretum’s tea house there, which is now on display at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

While all the trees are visible and close to the walkway, a large, 160-year-old chestnut oak will actually be part of the exhibit’s entrance.

“It’s important that you don’t go out to say hello to the trees but the trees come to meet you,” he said, referring particularly to the large chestnut oak. “You’ll be able to give it a hug.”

The exhibit will be permanent and should open in late spring 2009. Groundbreaking is anticipated this September.

The entire exhibit — including funds for educational programs and an endowment — will cost $3.6 million. Already, the arboretum has $2 million from private donors, and last month it received word that it got a grant from The William Penn Foundation, which is giving $750,000 over three years for the design, construction and implementation of the exhibit.