Dear Friends and Community Members,

We hope you and your families remain in good health. We continue to care deeply about the health of our community and slowing the spread of COVID-19 is our highest priority. For that reason, we are asking all our visitors to follow proper social distancing guidelines if you are visiting the Arboretum and Public Garden spaces such as the Arboretum proper and the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve. This public health directive has become our collective social responsibility. Our greatest hope is that we can keep the Arboretum and Reserve open at this time when people need the solace of nature the most. However, around the country, parks and nature areas are having to close in order to keep people safe. So, we ask that you please do your part to help us keep our spaces open.

If you visit, you'll see that we have placed signs around the Arboretum and Reserve to give you guidance about social distancing. Proper social distancing involves staying six feet or more away from other people at all times. There are some pathways in the Arboretum and Reserve that are narrower than others, and this can make social distancing a challenge, such as in eastern part of the Arboretum (closest to Downtown Davis). If you see that you are not able to maintain a safe social distance from others, please plan to go elsewhere or visit at another time. See the Chancellor's message of March 27 for more information.

As we have already announced, we needed to cancel all in-person events for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, we are currently still able to have a daily rotation of individual staff members, also maintaining proper social distancing, do limited daily checks to identify any urgent issues. Our program staff is all working remotely, but we are looking forward to a time when we can resume our normal, in-person programming. In the meantime, we are committed to maintaining connections with our community. We have also been working hard to to pivot to a meaningful virtual leadership internship for our Learning by Leading™ program. While we can't have our many students on campus this spring quarter, we are dedicated to helping them learn how to lead in a crisis and work on virtual engagement projects that benefit the larger community. We are focusing their work on contributing to people's health and well-being and the benefits that can be gained through an expanded virtual connection to nature as we all deal with sheltering in place. 

Please check our website for any updates. We also recommend that you subscribe to our e-newsletter, The Leaflet, for up-to-date notifications. 

Sending wishes of health and safety to all! We're in this together!

Kathleen Socolofsky with the entire Arboretum and Public Garden team
Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director
UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden