If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I make regular visits to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, especially in the spring to see the daffodils and the cherry trees, and also in the snow -- it's really one of my favorite NYC places to be on land. However, these days it seems like the board has lost track of something. I always thought that one of the things that makes a botanic garden a botanic garden instead of just a plain old garden garden is that there's generally some sort of SCIENCE going on there -- you may not always see it, it can be behind the scenes, but it's there and it's a big part of the garden's reason for being.
However, the board of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has decided that that doesn't really need to happen anymore - they've cut down the science staff and closed down their research center. Meanwhile, they had the money to open a "shiny new visitor's center" (quoting the Daily News article I link to below). Speaking as a visitor, I didn't need a shiny new center, I think it would have been better for them to spend the money on the science, even if I never ever set foot in the research facility.
Flatbush neighbor Chris Kreussling, who blogs and Facebooks as the Flatbush Gardener (he's always running neat things in the area like daffodil bulb plantings and stuff that I always want to go to but never make it to) and has been a long time supporter of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the one from whom I first heard about this, he's appalled by the departure from the organization's mission statement, and he's been running this petition for a while now. I've plugged on Facebook, now I'm linking to it here. Click here to sign! Oh, it's at 1,891 now, 2 new signatures as I typed this - 2,000 here we come (and let's not stop there). Thanks!
Good article about the situation here:
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