If you had to find the biggest lab on campus, where would you look? Beam Hall or Beam Engineering? Bigelow Health Sciences or Bigelow Physics?
Yes.
The main campus is among an elite group (less than 10 percent of those in the country) to have been designated a full-fledged arboretum. There's no signage, no labels, and no staff, yet the 337-acre "Emerald in the Desert" has perhaps the best collection of trees in Southern Nevada (more than 3,200 representing 120 species), more than 80 acres of plant life overall, and it's home to some serious research.
"It's a living laboratory," says Susan Jones, who is now a research associate with UNLV's landscape architecture & planning program, but a couple of years ago helped develop the first "Long-Range Plan for the Arboretum," which received that special designation from the 1985 Legislature. "With limited budgets, it's to our benefit to get the maximum use from our landscape. It's a logical tie to research programs. Students can go out and see the plants that'll be involved in their careers."
The arboretum is used by botany and landscape architecture students, as well as ornithologists and entomologists. And there's at least one other science involved: marketing. "A lot of prospective students and faculty make their decision based on the look of the campus," Jones says. "Studies by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching show that appearance is a very big factor in recruitment."
But the mission of the arboretum is simply to demonstrate plants suitable for our desert. The most notable showcase is the Xeric Garden, located between the Barrick Museum and Wright Hall. Designed by Jack Zunino of J.W. Zunino Associates in 1988, the oasis ¡V the first of its kind in Nevada ¡V has featured drought-tolerant plants from all over the world. (Wright Hall's renovation has cut into the garden, but it will be expanded again once construction is complete.)
Other noteworthy stops on the tour:
The Lee Pascal Memorial Rose Garden, at the north end of the north-south mall. Elaine Wynn donated the $24,000 installation as a memorial to her mother. It features "Show Biz," a floribunda rose symbolic of the Wynn prominence in the gaming and entertainment industry.
The AIDS Memorial Garden, at the southwest corner of the Health Sciences Building. Built in 1999, it memorializes those who have died of the disease.
The Arid Zone Trees Test Plot, along Harmon Avenue on the west side of campus. Researchers are studying the long-term performance of these old-world and new-world acacias in our harsh climate.
