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Beal celebrates 125 years of preserving nature.

Country's oldest botanical garden to hold open house

In 1873, MSU professor William J. Beal established a garden on campus in the hope it would become a place where students could enhance their book learning with hands-on research.
The original plants included grasses and clovers. A stream ran through the garden, creating boggy areas where wetland plants were abundant.
In the 125 years since then, the stream has been transformed into an underground storm sewer, the flower beds have been expanded and their layouts have been redesigned, and the wetland plants are now concentrated around an artificial pond.
In celebration of the W.J. Beal Botanical Gardens anniversary, an open house, garden tours and a special exhibit on endangered species are planned from 10 a.m. until the start of the football game against Indiana Saturday.
Here, experts hope the public will gain a greater understanding of the garden, the endangered species and means of conservation. "The more species we lose, the more biodiversity we lose," said Frank Telewski, curator of the garden and assistant professor of botany plant pathology. "We weaken the biosphere."
Located at the base of the hill behind the West Circle gazebo on the west side of the Main Library, the garden is the oldest continuously operating botanical garden in the United States. It spans five acres and is home to more the 5,000 plants- including 48 Michigan endangered plant species, 36 of which are protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act.
The act was passed in 1973 and is dedicated to finding methods of conserving plants and animals deemed endangered or threatened.