BAXTER — Northland Arboretum celebrated the groundbreaking of its newest addition Thursday, June 13. With equipment buzzing in the background, a handful of community members gathered next to the arboretum’s fenced-in gardens as Trevor Pumnea, executive director of Northland Arboretum, welcomed everyone to the semi-official groundbreaking of the new nature playscape. Pumnea laughed as he told everyone this was more of an unveiling as Mike’s Tree Company had called him a few weeks prior to the groundbreaking and said they had a crew and equipment ready to start work ahead of schedule.
And so they did. “There's nothing fancy, no golden shovel,” Pumnea said. “I tried.
But that's that's not how we're doing things here. We show up, we get after it and we make progress every day. So when you come out here, if it's loud, it's because we're working.
” This location will be a place for children to enjoy the outdoors instead of being in front of their computer screens all day long, Pumnea said. The idea for more interactive and accessible activities came from a survey the community filled out. ADVERTISEMENT “The number one thing that we learned, there wasn't enough interactive activities,” said Dan Lee, Northland Arboretum board president.
Though they are looking to change how Northland Arboretum is thought of in the community, Baxter Mayor Darrel Olson recalled moving up to the area with his family in the 1960s. On Saturday mornings, he would go to the Brainerd dump wi.