Conversation & Panel Discussion

Making NYC a Nature City

Thu, Mar 19, 2026

5:30 PM–8:00 PM

Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center. Free and open to the public. Please register to attend.

Biodiversity is often undervalued in New York City, a reality reflected in budgets and priorities. Join us for a conversation about improving outcomes for nature and people, which means ensuring that scientific knowledge, community experience, and equity guide decisions and investments.

New York’s nature is both globally significant and locally fragile. Wild plants and animals across the five boroughs support public health and climate resilience, even as they face increasing pressures from development, fragmentation, and climate change. Communities play an important role in stewarding and reimagining public land, while legal protections for local species remain uneven.

This event will bring together scientists, community leaders, and policymakers in panel discussions to explore where biodiversity lives in New York City, how we can rewild urban landscapes and who shapes the future of nature in the city. Together, we’ll consider what it would look like to elevate ecology as a core part of civic life rather than an afterthought.

Speakers

Brett Branco, Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay
Aurelia Casey, Youth Programs Senior Manager, Gowanus Canal Conservancy; PhD student in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the CUNY Graduate Center
Adam (Adán) Guzman, Masters in Urban Planning student in Urban Environmental Data at Hunter College; Former Climate Justice Hub Advocate at El Puente
Sara Evans, Director of Living Collections and Curator, Green-Wood Cemetery
Novem Auyeung, Director of Research and Monitoring, NYC Parks
Jessica Kaplan, Director of Horticulture, Riverside Park Conservancy
Kelly Vilar, CEO, Staten Island Urban Center
Marielle Anzelone, botanist & co-chair, NYC Biodiversity Task Force

Food will be provided at this event! Food and reception from 5:30 to 6:00 pm; the program starts at 6 pm.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the PhD program in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the CUNY Graduate Center, and the NYC Biodiversity Task Force.