BUFFALO, N.Y. — In an underused section of South Park, near Ridge Road where the park borders Lackawanna, the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy has some big plans.
"When Frederick Law Olmsted designed the arboretum he was very intentional about the entry points," said Margaret Lapp, curator of the South Park Arboretum, the park's living museum of trees.
Near what used to serve as a larger entrance to the park, the agency announced on Friday that it has hired a landscape design firm to assist in plotting out a $2 million complex, near where the park caretaker's dwelling stood more than a century ago.
Part of the complex will include a nursery, allowing the Olmsted Parks Conservancy to propagate its own trees.
"We certainly have a lot of wonderful local growers that we consult from time to time," Lapp said. "But we want to make sure the providence of a tree is well accounted for, so we would be securing seeds from our Olmsted original trees or from seed that have been collected in the wild.
"That's the best way to increase the arboretum quality of the trees and make sure the trees are of good quality."
The trees produced at South Park will also be used in the other Olmsted parks in Buffalo.
"We would also have the opportunity to eventually sell these Olmsted original trees to the public," Lapp said.
The new complex will also provide storage space for park equipment, meeting space, offices for the conservancy, and possibly classroom and activity areas.
Unfortunately, for Lapp, when the new complex is built, all she'll get to do is work there.
"As the first curator for the the arboretum I've asked, but, unfortunately I can't live on site," she said with a laugh. "But I would love to live on this beautiful oasis of trees."
An oasis which the agency says will be an even better one in the future.