By Donna Lacey

This past July I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a tour with the Southern Ontario Section of the Institute of Forestry. These tours are amazing learning opportunities for all attendees as not only are they led by outstanding professionals, but there are many generations of professionals in attendance.
The meeting place for the tour was Baden Hills Regional Forest, in the Region of Waterloo, Township of Wilmot. As most people seem to do, I put the address on my phone and let Google Maps guide me. I had three surprises while heading to this destination. First, I did not pass a single gas station. Second, I did not pass a spot to grab a coffee. Third, I drove past a forest down a hill to a cornfield with a “Welcome to Baden Hills Regional Forest” sign. I pulled into the small gravel parking lot, got out of my vehicle, and my learning began.
Turns out that this parking lot was built as a collaboration between Waterloo and Wilmot. The Township of Wilmot does not own a significant number of forests, yet Wilmot residents enjoy hiking through forests. The Region of Waterloo does own quite a few forests but lacked safe parking for its Baden Hills Regional Forest. Wilmot created an accessible parking area and trail to reach the forest which allowed its residents to enjoy the regional forest safely. With the connecting trail, visitors experience meadows, and new and more mature tree planting before reaching the plantation and hardwood forests. Once you reach the “hub” there is another trailhead sign with a map. This is where the accessible trail ends, but you could continue in a loop, which allows for approximately a one-kilometer venture. As the name suggests, it is all uphill from the parking lot to the hub and then even more so to reach the summit.  If you venture here, please be prepared for some steep slopes on the trail that are ranked as moderate to difficult footpaths.
Baden Hills/Wilmot Trails are located on one of the four “kames” that are located just outside of the Town of Baden. These glacial features are formed from glacial meltwaters and are irregularly shaped. Sand and gravel are typically found within a kame when the meltwater carried the materials from the glacier. The most interesting part of a kame, for me, is that the shape of the kames allows researchers to determine the glacial path.
Our next stop was the Township of Wilmot Arboretum. This arboretum’s first plantings took place in 1957/58 and it was opened to the public in 1964. Again, this was a great collaboration involving the Region of Waterloo, Waterloo Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. In 1994, the Region of Waterloo deeded the arboretum to the Township. 
There were 37 different genera of trees planted – approximately 70 species – making over 350 trees planted on this site by the early 1970s. Some of these trees are now missing from the site, yet others are towering over visitors. A few species are struggling to survive in this site that is far outside of their native land. One of our more interesting finds was the surviving blue ash among the Emerald Ash Borer killed white, red, green, European, and black ash trees. This helped to prove the resistance of blue ash to Emerald Ash Borer attacks. 
There is something special about being able to walk under these trees that were planted about 50 years ago. It feels good knowing that someone put an effort into having these specimens available for us to enjoy and learn from. A few of the species that seem to have done the best are now on the invasive species list Norway maple for example. Others are species that we are now more commonly planting than in the past like tulip trees and sycamore.
An interesting note about this arboretum is that it doesn't have any trails around it. In fact, while the grass is nicely mowed, it doesn’t look like the property sees many visitors as there are no worn spots. Like many areas in other communities, it seems as though the residents of New Hamburg don’t use the beautiful park space that is right on their doorstep. Could it be that the lack of a trail or facilities on the site, aside from the parking lot and a few picnic tables, makes this an unusable space? Would interpretive signage help visitors to appreciate some of the awesome tree species growing there? Would a trail draw more people out to see the trees? Or is it just that not everyone likes to just go and look at trees?
The closest mature arboretum to me is the one located at the Inglis Falls Conservation Area, managed by the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority and the Inglis Falls Arboretum Alliance. This arboretum is located just outside of Owen Sound. In this arboretum they have added more than just trees, there are specimen plants and shrubs as well. There are other arboretums consisting of more recent plantings in my local area and I find it very exciting to watch their development.◊