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History of the UCR Botanic Gardens
The Vasek Directorship, 1962-1967
With the funding of this [the Botanic Gardens] project in 1962-63, Professor Vasek probably was officially named Director of what is now the UCR Botanic Gardens, although it continued to be called the Life Sciences Experimental Area in Life Sciences budgets until about 1967. Since no actual physical development or planting of the site was begun until early in 1963, this date has been set for the founding of the UCR Botanic Gardens. However, a case could be made for an earlier founding date, based on administrative actions.
The first staff employee of this project, Mr. Dennis Kucera, was hired by Dr. Vasek late in 1962 with the title of Senior Nurseryman. In 1963, Vasek and Kucera began the development of the fencing, unpaved roads, and the irrigation system. The original irrigation system was installed to serve the entire 37 acres by gravity. This included a reservoir tank of 10,000 gallons located just above the south perimeter fence of the Gardens. This was filled by a manually-controlled electric pump which was later automated. Because of budget constraints, the irrigation lines were laid directly on the ground with faucets every 100 feet. The contractors laid everything in straight lines, disregarding the rugged sloping terrain. As a result, in places the pipelines went directly over boulders and thus were suspended several feet above ground level for long distances. This resulted in pipe breakage, and the consequent need for rerouting of lines to ground level. In the summertime, water in these exposed pipes often became so hot by midmorning that watering had to be confined to the early morning hours. It was not until 1967 that the pipes were buried.
As soon as water for irrigation became available in the summer of 1963, plantings were begun, using the materials collected and propagated by Dr. Vasek in pre-budget times, much of which came from the UCLA campus. The first plantings were alders, followed by cottonwoods and sycamores in the northern end of what is now called Alder Canyon.
As the Botanic Gardens' first director, Dr. Vasek's basic planting plan was to emphasize firstly, collections of native plants of California organized by geographic or climatic zones; and secondly, collections of exotic plants arranged by families. California desert plants, a deciduous shade forest, a native juniper collection, collections of citrus and figs, and a riparian white alder forest were among the early plantings and were located mostly in the northern half of the Gardens. The citrus and fig plantings were propagated from existing Citrus Experiment Station collections begun in the 1920's and 1930's by the late Professors Herbert J. Webber and Ira J. Condit, respectively.
Among the many early problems of developing the Gardens was the damage to roots and tops of new plantings by gophers and rabbits. Apparently, irrigated plantings increased the food supply for these pests so that their populations increased to such an extent as to seriously interfere with Gardens development. For a time, the only remedy to protect most young plants from rabbits was to enclose the tops in wire netting. To protect many from gopher damage, the roots had to be enclosed in wire baskets before planting. One of the rabbit control measures tried was to enclose the entire garden area in rabbit fencing. Professors Vasek and [Wilbur W.] Mayhew then organized an army of beaters into a line 800 feet long across the area, and sought to drive all the rabbits out the front gate. Vast hordes were driven out, but enough darted between the student beaters, spaced about 4 feet apart, to soon repopulate the area. Eventually a systematic trapping program for gophers and a shooting program for rabbits reduced these pests to tolerable levels of depredation, but such damage is a continuing problem plaguing garden development and maintenance.
Scarcity of operational staff (Mr. Kucera was it) and of funds mandated a very slow pace of development of plantings. Only the barest necessities of roads, trails, fences, etc. could be developed. The headhouse of Life Sciences Greenhouse 16 served as the operational headquarters of the Gardens in the absence of any building, even a tool shed, on the site in the first few years. Even common-place gardening tools were in short supply.
During Vasek's tenure as Director, the physical improvements funded in the 1962-67 period were, according to University records (Office of Architects and Engineers), the irrigation system, a small lathhouse, the perimeter fences, and some unpaved roads.
Despite lack of resources, Professor Vasek managed to establish a surprisingly large selection of California and other Southwestern plants, and also some species collections of exotic plants. In fact, plantings began to exceed manpower to maintain them. From the beginning, it was clear to Professor Vasek that additional staff and resources would be needed to further develop the garden if it were to serve even the basic needs of teaching and research in botany at UCR. Accordingly, the 1966-67 budget provided for a new staff position in the Division of Life Sciences to serve as Director, and an additional full-time employee to assist Mr. Kucera.
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