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.
