EMERALD NECKLACE CONSERVANCY INC

The emerald necklace conservancy advocates for and conserves the emerald necklace through projects and programs to restore and renew the landscape, waterways and parkways of the olmsted-designed park system. The conservancy brings together the many public and private park partners to prioritize, fund and implement restoration initiatives throughout the park system. In conjunction with public and private partners, organizes and implements maintenance initiatives to preserve the naturalistic beauty of olmsted's parks as well as maintain the gardens and pathways. In fy 2024 the conservancy began the second seven year cycle of pruning the tree inventory; the conservancy pruned 715 trees in olmsted park which will keep the trees and park healthy and safe for years to come. In addition, in late fy 2024, the conservancy conducted a re-inventory of the trees in the back bay fens to prepare for the next park pruning project to take place in fy 2025.

Community programs:in fy 2024, the conservancy partnered with organizations already hosting events in the parks to offer more opportunities for inclusive programming elements like american sign-language ("asl") interpretation, bipoc-led musical performances, and signage in multiple languages. Partners included: bamsfest, jamaica plain (jp) porchfest and fenway porchfest. The conservancy also partnered with the brookline community foundation to host the second annual brookline community parkfest in olmsted park in brookline which was a day of family-friendly activities, dance performance and music, and informational booths from local organizations.

Youth programs:the conservancy's green team is a summer youth environmental career exploration program which provides environmental education, leadership training and real work experience in the parks during an intensive six weeks through a partnership with the boston office of youth employment and opportunity. In fy 2024, 11 boston teens from boston public schools participated in this paid educational employment program. Two part-time crew leaders and two assistant crew leaders were hired and trained to assist education staff in program implementation. Participants regularly worked in various emerald necklace parks maintaining the landscape; took field trips and educational tours within the necklace and beyond; participated in an anti-bullying and inclusion workshop; explored career pathways in environmental fields with the usda forest service and arnold arboretum professional staff; participated in team building, and career soft-skills development activities. Canopy classroom is a place-based, environmental education program that is consistent with boston public school curriculum and state standards. The field-trip program held in emerald necklace parks connects boston third graders with the importance of science in the real world and their daily lives. In fy 2024, the conservancy worked with 28 schools and provided 1,019 student engagements through canopy classroom, increasing the number of engagements by 289 students this year compared to last year, and the most engagements for the program since it started in 2016.

Volunteer program:the conservancy's corporate volunteer days, days in the dirt, and our free public volunteer opportunities, tuesdays with roses and second saturdays, remained a popular offering for individuals and groups in fy 2024. Over 1,280 people volunteered with the conservancy from october 2023 - september 2024 and helped maintain and restore the emerald necklace by raking leaves, picking up garbage, removing invasive plants, or planting new trees and shrubs. Volunteers spent 2,829 hours caring for the emerald necklace-work that is critical to the conservancy's mission.

Charlesgate project:charlesgate park, located at the intersection of boston's back bay, fenway and kenmore neighborhoods, was designed by frederick law olmsted as a critical link to connect the emerald necklace, charles river esplanade and the commonwealth avenue mall. Our proposed design for charlesgate will rebuild and expand a people-friendly and regional pathway network, restoring connections between the emerald necklace, charles river esplanade and commonwealth mall for the first time in more than five decades. When complete, this restored system will allow direct walking and cycling connections between locations as distant as boston's north station, charlestown, dorchester, cambridge and watertown.