NYBG launches new Urban Naturalist Certificate Program this spring

The New York Botanical Garden will launch its new Urban Naturalist Certificate Program

in spring 2017.

This program will offer students the formal skills they need to observe,

interpret and document the plant and wildlife that abound in our teeming metropolis.

Led by former NYC Parks Chief Naturalist Mike Feller, NYBG’s team of expert naturalists will use the Botanical Garden’s grounds in the Bronx and select city parks as living labs to investigate the complex interrelationships among species, and to discover how the urban environment sustains our upland and coastal wetland ecosystems.

Beginning Wed., April 19 and meeting three times a week for five weeks, the Urban Naturalist Certificate Program combines classroom sessions, guest lectures, hands-on activities on the garden grounds, and weekly field excursions. Specifically designed to train people to become citizen scientists committed to conservation and environmental stewardship, the certificate is also valuable for those mengaged or interested in starting interpretive, educational tours of urban wild areas or parks. 

Registration for the program is open now, with special introductory rates for NYBG members and

Non-members available before Wed., March 15, dependent upon space availability.

For more information and to register, visit http://www.nybg.org/adulted/urban-naturalist.phphttp://www.nybg.org/adulted/urban-naturalist.ph.