Steve, This idea (or similar ideas) have been discussed on Gardenweb quite a few times. I personally have 25 acres that I dream about turning into a public arboretum. A number of other Gardenwebbers have properties or significant plant collections that they would ideally like to see sustained after they are gone. The major obstacle is money. For a group (university, gardening group/society, etc) to be interested enough in your property to consider keeping it going after you are gone, it has to be an extremely special place or be endowed with a large amount of money. From what I've seen, it is pretty tough. Each year a number of world-class properties get sold off when the owners die. Significant plant collections are often lost. Groups like the Garden Conservancy (probably the largest organization of its type) do what they can for really special places, but the funds and public interest are unfortunately far less than would be required to protect many potential treasures.

What _I_ think is that you should write the donation to a conservation program into your will. That way you do the pick-yer-own or whatever and have complete control til you die, then it goes on the way you specify.

Hi, The only place I've seen persimmon growing in NJ was in Strawbridge Park along Rt 38 in Moorestown, NJ. It may well have been planted there, though. I'm not super familiar with it - I suspect it's around in south Jersey but I haven't seen it. I might not recognize it at a casual glance, though. I've never seen it in north Jersey at all. Where's the Ridgefield Nature Trail, anyway? I am familiar with with Pawpaw and I don't think it grows in NJ at all - I've never seen it here. It's very common in Ohio where I grew up. Same with Pin Cherry - it sounds like it's commoner in the mountains of Pennsylvania but I've never seen it here. I was a volunteer on the Metroflora project for the Brooklyn Botanic garden in the late 90s, so I'm pretty familiar with the woody plants in the Bergen county area; and I don't believe I saw any of these three there. In fact, I got curious and dug out the 'Woody Plant Workbook' from the metroflora project - it has maps showing a dot in each quadrat where the (woody) plants were found. Persimmon is show as occuring on Staten Island and in Middlesex and Monmouth counties, but not farther north except for one or two places. Asimina triloba is only listed in 3 locations - 2 on Staten Island ond one in Monmouth County. At that point I suspect that people were either looking at planted specimens or mistaking Umbrella Magnolia for Pawpaw - they look rather similar. I know the BBG made a pretty good effort to check on IDs, but they had a lot of volunteers at that point and they weren't all real knowledgable. Prunus pennsylvanica is listed for 9 scattered sites over the entire area - like I said, I believe this is more common farther west. FWIW, if you're not familiar with it, the BBG Metroflora Project is a census of all the plants growing within a 50 mile radius of NYC. They broke the area up into 964 5x5km blocks; the book I mentioned has maps with a dot in each block where the plant was found. It doesn't really have enough info to specifically locate the plant, but it would give you an idea. It's fun to look at, anyway. Sorry I can't be more help. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Metroflora Project

Maybe these links will help: Your Conservation Easement Easement Brochure Land Conservancy NJ Green Acres Program