The Nairobi Arboretum
Century-old forestry trial plot turned living tree collection, its groves still measured tree by tree.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Nairobi Arboretum follows a young colonial forester named Batiscombe back to 1907, when Nairobi was little more than a rail depot burning through firewood faster than the forest could regrow. Facing a fuel crisis that threatened the railway to Uganda, he began a trial plot, planting saplings shipped in from continents away to see which species could grow fast and cheap enough to spare Kenya's native woodland. It follows what became of that experiment over the following century, including an Indian rubber tree planted in 1908 that is still rooted where you stand. Listen for how a fuel shortage quietly turned into a century of ongoing measurement.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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