The first official special event celebrating our 60th anniversary is "Out on a Limb: Poetry in the Trees." Please join us for an Opening Reception & Poetry Reading on April 1st at 2 pm in the Arboretum Classroom with Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout.

This project began last fall with a call for short poems with a nature theme to be used in the Arboretum during April, National Poetry Month. 60 people entered a poem or two in our contest. Poets Rae Armantrout, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, and Kevin Craft, English instructor at Everett Community College and editor of Poetry Northwest, generously agreed to act as judges.

Volunteers have been working for about six weeks to stamp the winning poems into clay tablets which will be glazed and fired, and then hung in the Arboretum for the month of April.

We hope you will join us for the opening day reception. We'll begin in the Classroom Building at 2 p.m. Out on a Limb poems are available to view in the Arboretum from April 1st to the 30th, dawn to dusk. As always, the Arboretum is free to visit.