BROOKLYN NAVY YARD — THE GREENWAY BOTANICAL GARDEN AT THE NAVAL CEMETERY, a native plant sanctuary near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, received international accreditation from plant conservation network Botanic Gardens Conservation International this week. The Greenway Botanical Garden is New York City’s first botanical garden to receive this accreditation.
The Greenway Botanical Garden was a former unmarked naval burial ground which was redeveloped by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2016. The organization replanted the abandoned 1.8-acre plot of land with a climate-resilient native meadow, which they say is now a site of “ecological restoration, public memory, and community gathering.”
The BGCI accreditation applies to gardens that “maintain documented living plant collections, contribute to plant conservation and research, and engage the public in the value of plant diversity.”
“In a city like New York, restoring and documenting native plant communities is some of the most important conservation work we can do. This accreditation is a recognition that urban ecological restoration belongs in the same conversation as any other form of botanic conservation,” said Eric Sanderson, vice president for urban conservation strategy at the New York Botanical Garden.
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