Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.
The Garden will be screening A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish on Saturday, January 22 at 2 p.m. to be followed by a moderated discussion with the director and narrator. Admission is free to all Garden visitors. Stop by any ticketing booth on-site to pick up your complimentary ticket.
I watched a new documentary recently that was a powerful and beautiful tutorial on how we educate, how we learn, and how we inaugurate change on a personal level. It was close to my heart since the topic was environmental stewardship.
A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fishis a movie about how the increase in carbon emissions and the raising level of acidity is affecting ocean life. It is a movie that will be enjoyed and should be seen by everyone.
The film is the story of a man, retired history teacher Sven Huseby, who is touched by Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker article*, ”The Darkening Sea.” Kolbert’s article spurs Huseby to go on a quest to investigate what is happening to our oceans. Woven into Huseby’s journey is the tale of his relationship with his grandson and a concern for future generations. It poses several important questions: What is our connection with the natural world? What kind of world will our children inherit? What kind of values can we instill in young minds?
Children of all ages, including their parents, will be inspired to learn more. Young adults, especially those with an interest in social responsibility, will be fascinated by the breathtaking images of the sea. Grandparents will contemplate legacy as they join Huseby’s journey with his grandson into the natural world.
A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fishdoesn’t proselytize; it is personal and positive with a strong message of social responsibility. It focuses on the wonders of the natural world and how we need to plan for the future as it examines the implication of increasing pollution.
Please join us for an inspiring, enjoyable afternoon.
*To view the entire article by Kolbert, a digital subscription to the New Yorker is required.
A good lecture can serve as a catalyst for change, and this year’s 11th Annual Winter Lecture Series at The New York Botanical Garden should send you away with a lot to think about, and some serious tools for precipitating change in your own community, city, or just our own backyard.
On Thursday, February 17, garden designer, award-winning author, photographer, naturalist, and teacher C. Colston Burrell will talking about ”Native Plants and Ecological Design.” Burrell will explore what actually makes a plant ”native,” the definition of ecological gardening, and the issues surrounding sustainable landscape design.
Last, but certainly not least, Annie Novak, urban farming evangelist and director of The New York Botanical Garden’s Children’s Gardening Program will ”Raise The Roof!” on Thursday, March 17. Novak is the founder and director of Growing Chefs field-to-fork education program, and the co-founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and will discuss the challenges, successes, and lessons learned from farming the skyline.
And while you’re at the Garden, why not make a full day of it? Visit Caribbean Garden for a mini-vacation in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory; snap a few pictures to enter into our photography contest; grab a bite from one of our two cafes dedicated to sustainable, local, tasty cuisine; and shop the Winter Sale at the Shop in the Garden.
Mark Weckel is Director of Research and Land Management, Mianus River Gorge Preserve
From Westchester down to Manhattan, reports of coyote sightings cropped up throughout 2010.
The truth is, coyotes don’t live everywhere (and so far not at The New York Botanical Garden), but they are becoming increasingly more adapted to urban living Researchers from Mianus River Gorge Preserve and WildMetro are using remote cameras (see footage of a coyote at Nature Study Woods in Westchester County below) to monitor urban coyotes to try to figure out one important question: Just how urban can an eastern coyote get?
Coyotes are native to the western U.S., yet have expanded their range throughout the east As of now the only large landmass without a coyote population is Long Island. If coyotes are to colonize Long Island, those living in Westchester and New Jersey will have to go through New York City!
This is giving wildlife biologists the rare opportunity to learn more about how animals adapt to urbanization in real time, which parks and natural areas will support coyotes, how they use man-made and natural corridors, and hopefully, what role these new predators will have to the ecology of the greater NYC metropolitan area.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
So to show you how much we love you and your photos, we’re offering half-off admission for a limited time, holding Saturday afternoon photography tutorials, and we’re throwing a photography contest in honor of our latest exhibition, Caribbean Garden which opens on Saturday. The contest will have two categories: Macro and Sense of Place, and the winner in each category (two total) will get a seat in a spring semester photography class! (See all the details here).
There’s just a few things to remember:
Tripods are not allowed inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
To be eligible a photograph must have been taken during the course of the Caribbean Garden.
Photographs entered into the contest should have Caribbean Garden as their main theme.
To vote, you do not need to be a member of the Flickr community, but you will need a free Yahoo or Google account.
In case of a tie, we’ll convene a panel of NYBG experts to pick a final winner!
So get your shutter finger warmed up, dust off your lenses, charge up your batteries, and get ready to snap some pictures! And please, if anything is unclear, let us know in the comments below. We hope you’re as excited as we are!
The Holiday Train Show is over, and we’re already setting-up, planning for, and dreaming about future exhibitions here at The New York Botanical Garden. Up next is a quick mini-vacation to the tropics via the Caribbean Garden. And then, it’s curtains up for The Orchid Show: On Broadway.
Oh, and one other thing: 2011 also marks the Garden’s 120th birthday!
It’s going to be a big year up here in the Bronx. We’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for the coming 12 months, but while we have a moment to sit and think and be contemplative, we thought we’d share this video we made with you. We asked a few people that work in, around, and with the Garden to answer the question, “What does the Garden mean to you? What does it mean to the world?” We hope you enjoy their answers.
A good lecture can serve as a catalyst for change, and this year’s 
teacher 
The lectures are being held at the Garden in the 
It’s obvious that we love photography here at the Garden. We love our 
