The West Virginia Botanic Garden (WVBG) saw a range of updates and new additions in 2023, from boardwalks to marvels of stonemasonry, and looks ahead to a new year of exciting plans.
The WVBG is a nonprofit 82-acre botanic garden located at Tibbs Run Preserve, the former site of the Tibbs Run Reservoir. The site consists of weaving hiking trails and waterways, and gardens developed in tune with the surrounding woodland. The garden is always aiming to provide refreshing amenities and activities for visitors, and in 2023 that included new and expanded gardens, renovations to increase accessibility and creative installations.
A popular area in the botanic garden, the Children’s Adventure Garden, was expanded in 2023, now featuring a trail connection to the Labyrinth. Updates to the Children’s Adventure Garden will continue in 2024 with interactive stations along the connection trail intended to encourage a relationship between children and nature. Completion of the interactive stations is expected this spring.
In 2020, the WVBG began plans for a garden to showcase fossils of West Virginia, and in the fall of last year the Prehistoric Garden was installed. The exhibit is made up of pieces collected from across West Virginia and overseen by experts. Some fossils are part of Executive Director Philip Smith’s personal collection, while others were donations by community members who wanted to support the project. The Prehistoric Garden furthers the WVBG’s mission to tell West Virginia’s botanical story by illustrating what the mountain state’s fauna looked like millions of years ago.
Through an award from the Greater Morgantown Organizational Arts Grant Program, the WVBG commissioned local artist Michael Loop to create a trailhead marker for the Pixie Cup Trail. Loop’s sculpture depicts pixie cup and British soldier lichens, highlighting details of unique micro habitats that might go overlooked.
“We named the trail after the pixie cup lichen, which is a common lichen species that you’ll find around the state but it’s something that’s often overlooked,” said Smith. “Michael Loop made a larger-than-life copy of this lichen species so that people can really identify what they’re in store for whenever they come out and start looking for these lichen on the trail.”
Aiming to create a scenic point for photography and an intriguing garden element, stonemason Wes Boddy constructed the new Moon Gate in the Secret Garden, a unique structure crafted from artfully placed stones. An Awen symbol is carved into the arch, representing inspiration and balance in life — concepts that are commonplace in the botanic garden. WVU Director of Art and Design Alison Helm also contributed an abstract sculpture that now acts as a focal point along The Long Walk trail.
Although The Terrace at Tibbs Run event venue opened in summer 2022, last year was its first full year of operation — and it was certainly a busy year. From concerts to dinners to dozens of weddings, The Terrace saw many happy guests pass through its doors, and with nearly every weekend booked in 2024, it looks ahead to another year of creative ways for the WVBG to use The Terrace’s space for the community to enjoy.
The botanic garden also received many beautification and accessibility updates in 2023, with newly paved roads and parking lots, new signage and blazes along trails and new boardwalks across Tibbs Run on the Far Side Trail and the Forest Loop Trail to allow easier crossing of wet areas. These updates are part of a greater mission of the WVBG to improve accessibility to the garden and ensuring all visitors can enjoy what the garden has to offer.
“We’re constantly thinking about accessibility and reducing any barriers that people may have to enjoying nature and being inspired and learning from it,” said Smith.
Perhaps the most highly anticipated project for 2024 is the new Equitrans Midstream Visitors Center. Although the botanic garden has informational kiosks for guests, the visitors center will provide a location to speak directly with a representative of the WVBG and learn more about the garden’s history, programs, plants or receive advice on navigating the garden. The visitors center will also feature a gift shop, and eventually a cafe area. The visitors center’s opening is expected this year, while the cafe addition is to be determined. This center will not only enhance the botanic garden experience for visitors, but will also further establish the WVBG as a state tourism destination and advance the organization’s missions.
“It really will elevate the garden as a tourism asset,” said Smith. “Part of our mission is inspiring people about plants and nature and sometimes that takes a personal interaction to encourage people to look at a certain thing that may be in bloom during a certain time of year.”
Throughout 2024, the garden also anticipates its typical cultivation of thousands of new plants, as well as a project enhancing the entrance experience to the botanic garden with unique hardscaping and revamped gardens. The WVBG will also have its regular diverse schedule of programs and activities for people of all ages and interests to enjoy.
Each year, the WVBG considers how its visitor experience can be further elevated, whether it be for locals who visit the garden every weekend or tourists who may only experience it once. This is furthered by the non-profit’s strategy of implementing upgrades in phases, as well as the natural changes the area experiences throughout the seasons — the botanic garden experiences metamorphosis in symmetry with the natural world it highlights.
“Whether someone’s never been here or whether it’s been a few years, I think people will find it’s quite a beautiful place and they will see how we’ve grown in a very organic and community-centric way. We’ve really leveraged volunteers and the passions of the community to enhance these gardens and landscapes in a way that’s in harmony with nature,” said Smith. “I encourage people to come out and give it a try, look at upcoming programs. There’s a lot of different ways you can interact with the garden in addition to walking the trails.”
The WVBG is free and open to the public 365 days a year from dawn to dusk, and is located at 1061 Tyrone Road, Morgantown. Visit WVBG.org for more information on the botanic garden and its programs.
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