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Acting Director Selected for Arboretum

September 21, 2009

Professor Gard Otis, faculty member with OAC’s School of Environmental Sciences, has been appointed to the role of acting director of the University of Guelph’s Arboretum, effective from September 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010.  The appointment is the result of the temporary study leave of Professor Alan Watson, who has served as director of the facility since 1992.

Otis holds a BS degree from Duke University and a PhD from the University of Kansas. His research specializations include honey bee behaviour, ecology, and evolution; Asian honey bees; parasitic mites of bees; tropical biology; and forest entomology.  He currently manages a CIDA program for the delivery of beekeeping training in Vietnam.

The Arboretum at the University of Guelph covers 165 hectares with horticultural gardens, botanical collections and gene conservation programs set among old growth forests and meadow ecosystems. Almost every tree and shrub indigenous to southern Ontario is growing at the Arboretum, which serves as home to 38 species of mammals, 188 species of birds, 39 species of butterflies, 18 herptiles (reptiles and amphibians) and 1,700 types of trees and shrubs.

The Arboretum, administered through the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph, provides a variety of programs and workshops year-round and serves as a significant visitor attraction for the citizens of Guelph and Ontario. For more information, visit: http://www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum/

For more information, contact OAC Communications: Brenda Cassidy at 519-824-4120, ext 56832 or bcassidy@uoguelph.ca