Celebrate Tyler Arboretum’s trail reopening with a new challenge

Middletown Township, Pennsylvania — Inside 550 acres of protected natural areas of Pennsylvania’s Tyler Arboretum in 2022, Heather Saunders and her team discovered an emerald ash borer infestation decimating their ash trees. She is the president of the board of trustees at Tyler and says it was a difficult decision to make.

Heather says, “Our native ash trees just don’t have any resistance to it. All of our native plants are potentially vulnerable to invasive pests.”

The decision to close the trails was to protect hikers and guests, and to give time for their teams to remove more than 1500 ash trees from the forested landscape.

Tyler isn’t alone. The emerald ash borer is an invasive species of beetle originating from Asia and is doing much damage to ash trees in North America and Europe.

“This particular pest was imported probably from East Asia. We don’t really know what’s going to be next.”

Today, the infested ash trees have been removed, and Tyler’s trails have reopened, and they are celebrating by holding a new trail challenge. Visitors can sign up to hike the 17 mile trail system and report their progress online.

“We are challenging our community to come out and hike all 17 miles. And people are getting excited about it for sure.”

More than 650 acres of landscaped gardens, nature exhibits and trails await the visitor checking into Tyler. The arboretum features a gingko tree, a sequoia tree, the Kentucky Coffee-tree and a weeping hemlock among many other eye catching plants dotting the rolling hills of the property.

Tyler is open year-round. “There’s no such thing as bad weather,” says Heather. They’re open daily except for a few holidays. For more information on the arboretum and its programs you can visit https://www.tylerarboretum.org.