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By Phil Williams
Tucked away behind Baldwin Hall on North Campus, a new garden will soon b e providing visitors with beauty and knowledge. There will be nothing else quite like it in Georgia.
The Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden will contain plants of medical and cultural importance to native peoples of Latin America, according to Brent Berlin, Graham Perdue Professor of Anthropology and director of UGA’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
“When fully operational, sometime in 2000, the garden will be available as a new resource for teaching, research and service to the university and greater Athens community,” says Berlin. “We plan for as many as 250 distinct species of plants from Latin America with ethnobotanical importance.”
The public is invited to a small ceremony honoring the first planting at the garden on Oct. 12, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the site on the corner of Thomas and Baldwin streets. Eugene Odum, founder of the Institute of Ecology, will plant the first tree in the garden. Other speakers will include Berlin; Dean Wyatt Anderson of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; Ron Carroll, director of the Institute of Ecology; and Stephen Kowalewski, head of the anthropology department. Andean folk music will be provided by Grupo Cultura and Bolivian folk dancing (Suri Sikuri) will be performed by Candace Stoughton and Aly Yépez. Traditional Peruvian food will be provided by Caliente Cab.
In addition, Odum and Fausto Sarmiento will sign copies of the new Spanish translation of Odum’s book Ecology: A Bridge Between Science and Society.
Sarmiento, associate director of CLACS and adjunct faculty member in the Institute of Ecology, translated Odum’s influential book following Odum’s 1997 revision of the 1990 publication.
“I first heard about Dr. Odum when I was a student in Ecuador,” says Sarmiento. “I knew that I wanted to come here some day and study with him.”
The translation, Ecologia, El puente entre ciencia y sociedad, was just published by McGraw-Hill/Interamericana and is the first major publishing project for CLACS. Odum’s book was intended to be “not only a textbook for beginning students, but also a citizen’s guide to the principals of modern ecology as they relate to today’s threats to our earth home.”
The official opening of the growing garden will be held in October 2000 as part of the seventh International Congress of Ethnobiology, which will meet on the UGA campus.
The garden will serve the public through interpretive display, provide a laboratory for faculty and student research and offer an outdoor classroom for learning groups. It will complement the campus and yet be distinguishable as a unique place. Recycled materials have been emphasized in the construction of the garden.
The Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden has been made possible by a grant from the Katherine John Murphy Foundation. Active participants in the garden at UGA include the laboratories of ethnobiology in the anthropology department, CLACS, the State Botanical Garden, the Small Business Development Center, the horticulture department, the corporate and foundation relations department, the Office of International Development and the grounds department of physical plant.
Also collaborating on the project is El Colegio de la Frontera Sur of Chiapas (Mexico), as part of an ongoing academic exchange with UGA.
“This has been a fully collaborative effort from the outset,” says Berlin. “The generous support of the Katherine John Murphy Foundation provided the financial backing to begin and maintain the garden and the enthusiastic efforts of numerous students, staff and faculty have made it possible to produce something unique. We are especially grateful for the fine work of the physical plant, and to Cheryl Mihalko, who is responsible for the garden’s design.”
MORE INFO
contact the Center for Caribbean Studies at 542-9079 or e-mail clacs@arches.uga.edu.
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