Project Description

In 2004 our team was engaged to create the vision, design and programming of a botanical garden for the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. We saw this not only as a space to celebrate nature in the heart of the City, but also as an opportunity for the public to learn more about biodiversity, our natural environment, habitat protection, and climate change.

We called the project the “Darwin Project” because of the focus on biodiversity and evolution of the natural world. The mission of the Darwin Project Botanical Garden and Environmental Learning Center remains to:

Build a 21st Century Botanical Garden and Conservation Learning Center, focused on the beauty and diversity of nature, and on exploration of new possibilities for a sustainable future for our small planet.

Our goals for the botanical garden were to:

• Create a common ground, focused on the beauty and diversity of nature, where residents and visitors of diverse cultural and social backgrounds could convene to explore our individual and collective roles in environmental stewardship and social action to shape the future of our global community.
• Make learning about nature fun and engaging for children, as well as reconnect adults with the imagination and freedom of expression that we came by naturally as children.

We plunged wholeheartedly into this botanical garden project. Much to our deep disappointment and to that of so many in the community and to environmental educators, the project fell within a poor economic climate and has not been funded. We have retained the title Darwin Project as the name for our non-profit organization which shares the same goals of environmental learning.

As the vision for our reinvented Darwin Project unfolded we became more involved in other environmental learning projects and looked to contributing new links in a global chain of consciousness about nature and humanity.

We will continue to draw from our experiences in defining the botanical garden to define relevant smaller projects related to environmental learning. The Young Explorers Club is a component of the botanical garden which we have been able to initiate within the Boston community.