by Dan Burgess
As summer starts, Boston residents will begin to seek out their favorite public green spaces. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from. Over 2,200 acres of park land within the city are maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department. Of these 2,200 acres, there is a group of parks known as Urban Wilds. Urban Wilds are plots of protected public land that aim to be ‘glimpses of the natural world’ prevalent before the city became the concrete and steel jungle that it is today.
The Urban Wilds Initiative (UWI) originally grew from the environmental awakening of the 1970s. Currently, over thirty pieces of land scattered throughout Boston are designated as Urban Wilds. These green oases are essential to the Boston area as they serve as brief windows to the original Boston landscape that John Winthrop and the crew of the Arbella would have first settled.
Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a day sprucing up an Urban Wild site. Puddingstone Garden is located on a small hill in Roxbury on the corner of Normandy Street and Sea Street, near the Franklin Park Zoo. This Urban Wild is named after the Roxbury Puddingstone rock formations prevalent in the park that literally look like pudding with stones sprinkled throughout.
The group I was with spent time mulching, planting, pruning, and generally cleaning up the park. Throughout the day, numerous senior community members came by to thank us. Many of these folks described a time when the park was mostly heaps of brick, concrete, and trash. Their community association had worked over the years to refurbish the Garden and they were rightly proud of their impact. At the end of the day, it became obvious to me that community support was essential to the survival of these Wilds.
With over thirty Urban Wilds in Boston, chances are good there is one near your home that could use your support. Check the Urban Wilds website to see a full list of active sites in Boston. I encourage you to visit a park in your area, enjoy its serenity, and then contact the Parks and Recreation Department to see what you can do to ensure the Urban Wilds Initiative continues to prosper.
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