Emerald Necklace

Over the past decade, almost $60 million in capital expenditures for parks and waterway improvements have been made in the Emerald Necklace by the City of Boston and the Town of Brookline. These efforts have included improved pathways, plantings and signage, bridge repairs, and the restoration of boardwalks and buildings. But, these efforts have only begun to address the over fifty years of neglect the Emerald Necklace has suffered.

To support and build upon public sector initiatives - the result of two decades of private sector and community advocacy -- to restore and preserve the Emerald Necklace, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy was established in 1996 under the auspices of the Boston Greenspace Alliance. In late 1997 it became a separate, non-profit organization. The Conservancy drew upon models established by the Central Park Conservancy, the Prospect Park Alliance (New York) and the Louisville (Kentucky) Conservancy for its organization and its desire to bring together concerned citizens to become advocates for, and stewards of, urban greenspace.

A not-for-profit organization, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy is a public-private partnership comprised of community, business government and institutional representatives, residential neighbors, representatives of Necklace-related associations and interested citizens.

With a mission to preserve, improve, promote, and maintain the land and water parks designed by Olmsted, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy focuses on:

establishing community commitment through advocacy and education, and by building an enlarged, united and diverse constituency for the Emerald Necklace;

creating and supporting maintenance plans which ensure that the six parks are managed as a cohesive system;

providing private sector and individual support to augment limited municipal parks budgets in Boston and Brookline in order to ensure Emerald Necklace restoration and on-going maintenance efforts.