Description
In the new book on Geographical Arboretum the authors and arboretum managers Patrick Huvenne, Kevin Knevels and Wilfried Emmerechts share their knowledge and passion: they lead us into the rich variety of forests in America, Europe and Asia, into the specialised management of such a living collection and into the challenges of sustainable forest management under the influence of climate change. The many maps, graphs and historical documents support their story. Jan Decreton vouches for the beautiful photographs.
An extraordinary arboretum in an extraordinary forest. Situated in the municipality of Tervuren, the Geographic Arboretum sits like a crown on the head of the majestic Sonian Forest, on its north border. The collection is set in a beautiful landscape park, between imposing alleys and along a labyrinth of grassy open valleys. More than a tree collection, this is a collection of forests, or forest types, more precisely. Countless trees and shrubs from the North, the West and the East of North America, from Central and Mediterranean Europe, from the Middle and Far East of Asia are grouped here by region of origin in some hundred sections, covering a total of 120 ha.
The arboretum was founded in 1902 on a property of King Leopold II and is today the most attractive public domain of the patrimony bequeathed by the king to the Belgian nation in 1903. The original design of Professor Charles Bommer has been maintained through more than a century of extensions and rejuvenations.
