Earth Month Celebration 2023

Indigenous Plants & People Walks
April 1, 8, 15, & 22; 11:30 a.m.
Meet at Thain Family Forest Entrance

Join one of our guided tours with Moskehtu Consulting to learn more about native plants, birds, and peoples.

Indigenous Plant Identification Tour
April 1, 8, & 22; 11:30 a.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool

This tour will begin with an overview of the history and traditional culture of Indigenous peoples, guiding participants through natural areas and explaining how particular plants are identified and harvested in traditional and modern times. The guide will show participants which parts of a plant can be utilized, how to identify and pick the right plants, and how to safely store them for later use.

About Your Guide
Rodrick Bell is a Historian and Canoe Instructor whose life’s work is centered on the preservation of both the history and cultural traditions of Indigenous eastern woodlands First Nations. Descending from both the Carolina Algonquin and Virginia Powhatan first contact tribes, he is passionate about creating outdoor restorative experiences that help reshape the attitudes of all participants—in turn encouraging them to redevelop a love and respect for Earth.

Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Plant Walk
April 15; 11:30 a.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool

Join us for an Indigenous plant walk led by Chenae Bullock, Founder & CEO of Moskehtu Consulting, member of the Shinnecock Nation, and author of 50 Medicines: Indigenous Oral History and Perspective. Her walk will be based on ITEK, or Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, which is a body of observations, oral and written knowledge, practices, and beliefs that promotes environmental sustainability and the responsible stewardship of natural resources through relationships between humans and environmental systems.

Bird Walks
April 15 & 30; 11 a.m.
Meet at Reflecting Pool

Join an expert bird guide from NYC Audubon for a tour of NYBG’s diverse landscape to learn why this unique green space is such a vital haven for a great variety of species year-round. NYC Audubon is a grassroots community that works for the protection of wild birds and habitat in the five boroughs, improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers. Limited participation is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Thain Family Forest
April 9 & 20; 2:30 p.m.
April 22, 25, & 28; 12:30 p.m.
April 26; 11 a.m.

Experience the beauty of the Garden’s 50-acre Forest on this one-hour walking tour with a Tour Guide. You’ll learn interesting facts about the trees, history, geology, and ecology of this original uncut woodland.

Native Plant Garden
April 2, 13, 14, 16, & 19; 2:30 p.m.
April 9, 16, & 23; 12:30 p.m.
April 23; 11 a.m.

The Native Plant Garden houses a diverse collection of ferns, perennials, shrubs, and trees native to the northeastern United States. Take a guided tour through these re-created habitats with one of the Garden’s docents.

Native Forest with Chenae Bullock
Ongoing
Thain Family Forest

Read and Walk! As you explore, look for signs written by Chenae Bullock, Founder of Moskehtu Consulting, featuring some of the useful and edible plants utilized by the Indigenous inhabitants of the Northeast.

Eating In-Season with Kris Da Bronx Vegan
April 8, 9, 15, & 16 

What’s for dinner? Kris Da Bronx Vegan shares seasonal vegan options you can even learn to forage for yourself. Kris is a Bronx native and has dedicated her work to community involvement and health promotion. She started her business in 2020 and made it her goal to provide food access to her community and combat food injustices.

Protein Power with Plant Candy
April 22, 23, 29, & 30
Learn healthy tips and tricks for keeping your plant-based meals both delicious and protein-packed. Brandy Cochrane, founder of Plant Candy, is a chef, recipe developer, teacher, author, and founder of the plant-based companies Entrepreneur Meal Plan and Plant Candy. Learn about Brandy’s work to improve both the personal and professional lives of individuals through plants.

Located in the Longwood/Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, Kelly Street Garden aims to “cast a light on the healing components of food, justice, equality, culture.” The event will kick off with an iNaturalist workshop followed by a BioBlitz to document the wild organisms that use this garden for habitat and refuge. If you are interested in the more-than-human world that we share our urban spaces with, and want to meet other like-minded folks, all are welcome to register!

RSVP

Check out our April EcoQuest Challenge

Complementing these special Earth Day programs, an exhibit in Ross Gallery on view through April 30 features botanical works crafted by Van Aken. They highlight the many different fruit varieties he combines in a unique grafting process to create hybrid trees, as seen in The Open Orchard, his project on Governors Island. Displayed alongside fruit specimens in NYBG’s own William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, his works underscore the integral role of grafting in improving local biodiversity and habitat conservation.

Meet the Scientists

The Science Division of The New York Botanical Garden encompasses several departments and programs and includes more than one hundred scientists, including staff, graduate students, Emeritus Curators, and Adjunct Scientists. All are working toward the Garden’s scientific mission to explore, understand, and conserve Earth’s vast botanical diversity.

Stop by to learn from the following:

• Saturday & Sunday: Morgan Halane on EcoQuest and iNaturalist Projects
• Saturday: Ken Karol and Kate Armstrong will present on species discovery from the Midwest
• Sunday: Ben Torke and Fabian Michaelangeli present a plant pressing demonstration

Connect with the Mertz Library Collections

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s outstanding collections represent over a century of commitment to botanical and environmental research. The skilled Library staff serve as an invaluable resource by providing the highest-quality resources and services to meet the needs of the Garden’s diverse research, instructional, and outreach programs, including the Garden’s research staff, botanists, and horticulturists as well as scientific, scholarly, and artistic communities worldwide and the public at large. Sign up for a Mertz Library Card or take home a coloring books featuring some of the Library’s favorite plates from its rare books related to botany, landscape design, and horticulture!

Composting with Bronx Green-Up
Saturday only
Solar Pavilions; 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

The NYC Compost Project Hosted by The New York Botanical Garden works to provide New Yorkers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost locally. Join us at our table to learn about our programming, the various ways you can turn your food scraps into compost in New York City, and the Master Composter Certificate Course. Also, while you’re there, check out our composting worms and pick up a reusable bag!

Herbarium Hoopla

NYBG’s William and Lynda Steere Herbarium is a National Systematics Research Resource Center containing contains approximately 7.8 million specimens, making it the second-largest herbarium in the world, according to Index Herbariorum. Learn how these specimens are collected, preserved, mounted, and categorized with NYBG’s Herbarium team. Admire their display of specimens, enjoy a mounting demonstration, and try your hand at creating a specimen to take home with you!

NYBG Thain Family Forest

As the largest uncut expanse of New York City’s original wooded landscape, the Thain Family Forest remains a magnificent reminder of the beauty and resilience of nature in the face of complex human-caused disturbances. Learn about the importance of urban forests and what you can do to help protect our precious natural ecosystems.

Steere Herbarium Tour
12:15 p.m.; Saturday Only
Meet in Ross Gallery

Want an inside look at the Herbarium? Join a Herbarium staff member for a 45-minute tour highlighting how specimens are digitized and incorporated into into The Hand Lens.

This spring the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden turns 25! Join the fun as we celebrate 25 years of outdoor nature and science play in the Bronx.

Learn More

Have a question? The Shop’s knowledgeable staff is always there to welcome and assist you! Select from our recommended reading list for Earth Month here, including titles from How to Garden the Low Carbon Way by Sally Nex and Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet by John W. Reid and Thomas E. Lovejoy.

Beginning April 11, visit the Rare Book Room’s newest display curated in collaboration with NYBG Gardener Katie Bronson. Entitled The Colorful World of Katie Bronson, it will showcase her sustainable natural dyed yarn and rare book images of the plants Bronson used to dye them. This display will be on view through June 2023.