Arboretum Volunteers Start Petition Against Merger Idea
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ARCADIA — Volunteers at the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum began collecting signatures Thursday in opposition to a proposed merger of the County Museum of Natural History and the Arboreta and Botanic Gardens department.
The Board of Supervisors last week ordered a 30-day feasibility study of the proposal, which the museum strongly supports. Leon Arnold, acting director of the Department of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens, said he is staying neutral. Under the plan, the museum in Exposition Park and its satellite, the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, would take over the arboreta department.
Alice Thomas, president of the 4,000-member California Arboretum Foundation, a volunteer fund-raising group that supports the 127-acre Arcadia garden, is leading the petition drive because she believes the Arboretum should retain its independence.
Similar petition drives against the proposed consolidation are being launched in the department’s other gardens in La Canada Flintridge, Palos Verdes and Beverly Hills, she said.
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