08-05-2025
New arboretum upgrades
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Visitors to the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum in Sioux Falls will notice some new additions this spring and summer.
A newly installed pedestrian bridge is now open to foot traffic. And that's not all.
Recent rain has greened up the acres of vegetation at the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum.
'I absolutely love this place. I feel at home here. In touch with nature,' Minnehaha Master Gardener Jerry Mills said.
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Minnehaha Master Gardener Jerry Mills is tending to the vegetables growing in the arboretum's teaching garden.
'We've got varieties of asparagus coming up right now. The rhubarb is up. The strawberries are popping and it won't be long, we'll be having first berries,' Mills said.
But plants aren't all that's sprouting up at the arboretum.
'This is a major feature of our lower-level area trail system. It gets a lot of use,' Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum Executive Director Mike Cooper said.
The city has installed a brand new pedestrian bridge that replaced the one that spanned the main avenue through the old quarry town of East Sioux Falls. That bridge was demolished last fall. Crews installed a rustic replacement made of metal and wood.
'And one of the other additions that we're working on is trying to get funding so we can add quartzite rock to the concrete abutments to help it look more historic like the original bridge was,' Cooper said.
The new bridge is a gateway to the arboretum's trail system, which includes a newly developed section called the Woodland Trail; a winding pathway with a quartzite rock surface lining the hillside.
'It was a bit of a challenge to come up with a design that wasn't super steep,' Cooper said.
PERRY: That's why it's so winding?
'Winding back and forth,' Cooper said.
On Arbor Day, students from Rosa Parks Elementary came out here to plant ten new trees along the trail to kind of put the 'wood' in Woodland Trail.
'The city forestry department has been taking out some of the green ash trees because of the ash borer invasion. So, this is a nice way to get replacement trees planted that really fit in with this native environment of this area, the way it used to look,' Cooper said.
Visitors can become amateur arborists by visiting the Tree Education Garden which contains the Mayor's Grove.
'And when you flip up, it shows you information about the tree,' Cooper said.
'It's an education thing for kids, adults, whoever to kind of walk around and learn more about trees, which is what the arboretum is all about,' Cooper said.
Plants are also emerging, right on cue.
'The last couple of weeks, we've had some cooler weather, our tulip bulbs are starting to pop out, so things are greening up. And we'll be putting in more plants here in the next few weeks, like annuals in the formal gardens area,' Cooper said.
The site of a former ghost town is coming alive; revealing the splendor of nature in the backyard of Sioux Falls.
'Every improvement out here just adds more attraction to the public. More opportunity to get out in nature and see the trees, the grass, the wildlife, in some cases. It's a beautiful place,' Mills said.
The Minnehaha Master Gardeners have begun weekly garden tours at the arboretum. They take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. through October.
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