embassy events 2008 

Ambassador Ashe previews 90th Diplomatic Anniversary Sites at Rogow Forestry and Environment Experiment Station

12 November 2008 

SGGW former Rector Tomasz Borecki and Ambassador Ashe investigate a 340 year old Polish tree at the teaching facility (more photos)

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe and Agricultural Counselor Eric Wenberg visited the Experiment Station and Forestry Education Center of the University of Life Sciences in Warsaw (SGGW) on November 7, Wenberg announced.  The station consists of an education facility and a 60 hectare (150 acre) forest featuring trees from around the world, including over 350 species from North America.  Recognizing the preservation of unique species, the American Embassy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture plan to mark the 90th anniversary of U.S.-Polish diplomatic relations with an event at the forestry station.  Ambassador Ashe praised the station as a place “where Polish scientists have protected this important piece of America.” Ambassador Ashe and Counselor Wenberg, avid hikers, proposed a new North American Trail, with an unveiling in May 2009.  Current SGGW Rector Aloysius Szymanski and Center Director Janusz Falkowski have received a grant offer from USDA for this work.   

SGGW is Poland’s largest agricultural university and one of the nation’s premier education institutions of higher learning.  After Poland became a free nation 90 years ago, the University founded an arboretum in 1925 to preserve trees from around the world, including the over 350 North American species.  During the November 7 visit, Ambassador Ashe remarked, “The station preserves many North American tree species such as the sequoia, western red cedar, red oak, magnolia, many maples, and trees extinct in the United States like the American Chestnut.  The center symbolizes the deep ties between Poland and the United States, where Polish scientists have protected this important piece of America.”  The Center has been visited many times by the USDA’s Forest Service and American scientists and is used to teach successive generations of Polish forestry experts.  Dedicated station directors and University personnel preserved the site through wars, communism, and market transition in Poland.  Any American visiting the country, missing their local flora, can visit the park about one and half hours west of Warsaw in Rogow, near Lodz.  http://arboretum.sggw.pl/