The Good Life: Fourth Bluff Park and River Garden named Level 1 Arboretum by ArbNet
By Candace Gray for Memphis River Parks Partnership
The riverfront is full of life. Whether it’s lovers getting engaged, children roller-skating, dogs getting a belly rub from their hoo-mans, or bees frolicking in the pollinator garden — we love ALL the signs of life we see here!
Our river ecosystem is just as important and, in the Memphis River Parks, it’s filled with an urban forest that supports a wide variety of plants and animals. Fourth Bluff Park and River Garden have been certified as an Arboretum with Level 1 accreditation by the international organization, ArbNet.
The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum grant green spaces this credential for growing and identifying a diversity of native and ornamental woody plants, hosting environmental education programs, using sustainable maintenance practices, and keeping the site open for the public to enjoy.
The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. Fourth Bluff Park and River Garden now have this distinction and are also recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
The Arboretum contains many trees native to the Memphis area, including the Kentucky Coffee Tree, Willow Oak, Eastern Redbud, Flowering Dogwood, and many more. Most prominently in Fourth Bluff Park, Water Oaks cradle the entire green space with a unique, centuries-old specimen providing wide-spreading shade.
In River Garden, flood-tolerant trees like Southern Catalpa, Hardy Pecan and River Birch cascade down the bluff to the water edge. These, and nearly 40 more species known to thrive in the ever-changing, sometimes harsh Memphis climate, can be found here. Keep an eye out this spring and summer when we’ll have the chance to see these trees flourish.
These trees not only provide important ecological services to our native fauna, but they also enrich the visitor experience. From Fourth Bluff Park, visitors can enjoy panoramic harbor views, coupled with the signature Memphis — Arkansas Memorial Bridge “M” that makes the magic of our riverfront undeniable. Just ask everyone who came to Memphis Slim Collaboratory’s Soulin’ on the River concerts or joined thousands of their fellow Grizz fans at a playoff watch party.
Come to the river and visit the River Garden and Fourth Bluff Park Arboretum to see what life looks like atop the bluff, between the trees, overlooking the Mississippi River, on the riverfront of M-town.
