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WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg Botanical Garden and Freedom Park Arboretum (WBG-FPA) have received a new accreditation for their gardens.
WPGA-FPA received Level I accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Arboretum for achieving standards of professionalism important for arboreta and botanical gardens around the world.
The new accreditations also mean that WBG-FPA is now recognized and listed in a database called the “Morton Register of Arboreta,” a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
WPGA-FPA’s official listing in the Morton Register can be found online.
WPGA-FPA is a 600-acre woody county park and features over 150 woody species including many that are indigenous species to James City County.
The garden is maintained by community volunteers including various organizations such as *Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners, *Peninsula Tree Stewards (which is part of the Master Gardeners), *Master Naturalists, and *Virginia Native Plant Society members.
The Arboretum includes the Free Black Settlement living history area. This park preserves one of the first free black settlements in American history and features a re-built living quarter on the Hot Water Tract for formerly enslaved people who lived in the area in the 1870s. The area includes more than 30 documented tree species.
For more information on the Williamsburg Botanical Garden website.