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Writer's pictureDeborah Shaw

BAGSC Tour of UCR Botanic Gardens and Quarterly Meeting: Expanded Program and Extended Deadline

by Tania Marien, Clara Josephs and Deb Shaw 

The first Guild meeting of the new year will be held at the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, a 40-acre garden and nature preserve in the Inland Empire. The program and tour has been expanded, and the RSVP deadline has been extended.

These lush 40 acres on the campus of UC Riverside were established as a teaching garden and were originally called the “Life Sciences Experimental Area”. Today the 52-year old garden is open to the public everyday except holidays.

The Guild’s meeting on Sunday, March 6, 2016 includes a tour of the Garden and an opportunity to learn more about trees in preparation for Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens, The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial.

Tour (Part I) and Quarterly Meeting

The first BAGSC garden tour will occur before the meeting, and will cover the history of the garden and explore the formal parts of this little known gem.

Guild members should gather at the Garden’s entrance at 9:45 a.m. The garden tour will begin promptly at 10 a.m. Guild members should wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a hat, water and sunscreen. Cost is $8.00/person, payable at the meeting. Parking is additional (see below) and carpooling is encouraged (see below for that information too!). Guests, family and friends are welcome!

The business portion of the meeting will be held in the conference room from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Lunch will be eaten during the meeting. Please bring a sack lunch.

Tour (Part II)

After the BAGSC meeting and lunch, enjoy an optional, additional tour of the Garden from 1pm – 2pm. While you may be accustomed to visiting other botanical gardens, be prepared to explore the botanic gardens at UCR in the “Part II” tour. Hilly terrain and footpaths promise to turn your visit into an expedition. See additional tree specimens and parts of the garden that the casual visitor will miss. Don’t feel like going on an expedition? Bring your sketchbook and camera and spend the afternoon recording your finds.

What can you do at UCRBG?

Here are some suggestions… [click a photo to see a larger image and captions]

Directions, reservations, and other nitty-gritty information

RSVP: To reserve a spot on the Garden tour and to RSVP for the Guild meeting, please contact Tania Marien by February 19, 2016. Won’t be able to commit until the last minute? Never fear! We will be reserving a few additional spots for those who discover they can come at the last minute. Please let Tania Marien know, however, as soon as possible.

Directions and parking: To help you navigate your way through campus, here are written directions:

  1. From L.A. or Orange County:

  2. Take the 60 Freeway east.

  3. Exit at Martin Luther King Blvd.

  4. Turn right at the end of the off-ramp.

  5. Turn right at first stoplight (Canyon Crest Drive).

  6. Enter campus and continue to West Campus Drive.

  7. Turn right on West Campus Drive.

  8. Follow West Campus Drive past Entomology, the Herbarium and the greenhouses. The road descends as it passes the greenhouses. The bottom of the hill is Botanic Garden Drive. Turn right at the stop sign onto Botanic Garden Drive.

  9. You will see Lot 10 on your right. Parking here is limited to 2 hours ($1.25/hr on weekends). You do not want to park here if you will be at the Garden all day.

  10. To park in the UCRBG parking lot, look beyond Lot 10 and you will see Botanic Garden Drive continue up a gradual hill to your right. Follow this road to the Garden. If space is available, park in the Garden’s lot. Purchase a permit at the permit dispenser located just inside the main gate. Parking in this lot costs .25¢ per hour.

If parking in the Garden’s lot is full, do this:

  1. Drive down Botanic Garden Drive. At the bottom of this short road, turn right.

  2. Park in Lot 13. Look for Tania’s white Suburban.

  3. It will have on it a large magnetic sign from the WWW Symposium. Once again, look for Asuka’s tomato. This way you will know you are in the correct parking lot.

  4. Purchase a permit at the permit dispenser. Parking in Lot 13 is $5.50/day on weekends.

  5. Walk back to the Garden.

  6. For more information about visitor parking and permit dispensers, please go to http://parking.ucr.edu/visitor.

Download a color-coded map, supporting the written directions above.

To learn more about the Garden, please see http://gardens.ucr.edu.

Attached to this message is a map_UCR_campus supporting the written directions above. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Tania Marien.

Carpooling: We are coordinating carpooling locations to make the drive fun and parking easier.

Pasadena area: There is limited parking available at the LA Arboretum. They are expecting a large crowd later that morning for a rock (not music) show. We can park at the outer edges of the LA Arboretum parking lot, OR we can arrange to meet just south of the Arboretum, in the Westfield mall parking lot.

San Dimas meeting place: Meet at the juncture of the 210 and 57 in the Costco parking lot in San Dimas at 520 N. Lone Hill Ave. An easy meeting spot is near to the Costco gas station.

Orange County meeting area: members should arrive at Clara Josephs’ house in North Tustin in time to depart by 8 am.

Want to set up a carpool location in your area? Join a carpool at one of the locations above? Contact Clara Josephs. If you have room in your car, and will take another member, let Clara know so she can help someone who needs a ride.

We look forward to welcoming you to the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens (UCRBG) on Sunday, March 6, 2016.

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