The Kenton County Cooperative Extension main office location has been transforming over the past year. Plans are underway for the 3.5-acre office location to become an Arbnet-certified level II arboretum. Arbnet is an internationally recognized arboretum certification body that certifies industry standards for maintaining woody plant collections. The goal of creating this arboretum on the extension site is to allow for a “living classroom” to teach and demonstrate horticulture concepts as they pertain to Kenton County. The focus of the collection of trees and shrubs is on those species that are considered to be native to the 71D and 71k eco-regions that Kenton County falls within as stated by the USDA’s ecoregions map.

Having all or as many of the recognized native plants in this county as possible will allow for a greater appreciation of the ecology that we rely upon for our sustained environments’ health and well-being as that pertains to constituents of Kenton County. This arboretum, free and open to the public will allow for access regardless of socio-economic status.

From January 2022 to December 2022, two meadows have been established, a no-mow lawn demonstration plot, as well as planting over 100 woody shrubs of diverse species throughout our site. Master gardener volunteers from three counties have contributed hundreds of hours to this effort and have been involved with the planting and maintaining of the woody plant collections. In addition, funding has been provided by two grants awarded, one from the R.C. Durr Foundation and the other from the Northern Kentucky Urban & Community Forestry Council helping to finance material expenses.

Plans for adding the remaining native species currently not present on site, displaying accession labels, mapping plant locations via satellite, and listing the species on our extension website are ongoing. The intended life of this project will be permanent and ongoing and will likely be the first University of Kentucky county cooperative extension Arbnet-certified arboretum. Ideally, this site could serve as a standard or model for what other extension offices throughout Kentucky can work towards in highlighting the best of their local flora.