{"id":241078,"date":"2026-02-17T07:15:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=241078"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:40:01","slug":"curating-green-space-in-an-urban-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/02\/curating-green-space-in-an-urban-jungle\/","title":{"rendered":"Curating Green Space in an Urban Jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it may be known as \u201cthe concrete jungle,\u201d New York City has thousands of parks<\/a> across its five boroughs, totaling more than 30,000 acres.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Lucas \u201810 (CAHNR<\/a>) has put her degree from the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture<\/a> to good use working at one of these parks, Madison Square Park Conservancy, over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

The Madison Square Park Conservancy is just 6.2 acres squeezed into three blocks between 5th<\/sup> and Madison Avenues. It sees an average of 60,000 visitors per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot with what we have,\u201d Lucas says. \u201cOne of the benefits of New York is that there are people who are eager and passionate to support projects, particularly ones that provide beauty and interest to the surrounding neighborhood and community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas, the director of park operations and horticulture, manages multiple accredited plant collections, park operations, and security.<\/p>\n

A large part of the job, Lucas explains, is educating people about what they are doing in the park and why rules \u2013 like not climbing the trees \u2013 exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s both an opportunity and challenge in communicating this work to people in the urban environment,\u201d Lucas says. \u201cNew Yorkers are excited to be outside. The number of people we interact with on a daily basis who don\u2019t typically have access to [green space] is a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas didn’t always plan to have a career in plant science. She started UConn in the pharmacy program. She soon realized the field wasn\u2019t a fit for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I was trying to figure out what the next steps would be in my life, I saw the amazing greenhouses on [the Storrs] campus and talked with folks over there,\u201d Lucas says. \u201cHaving gardened a lot in my childhood with my grandparents, I was really interested in the possibility of plant science and horticulture as a future career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas credits her time at UConn with preparing her for the role she has now.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was really hands-on,\u201d Lucas says. \u201cYou learn practical skills that you read about in theory, in textbooks, and then you immediately get to go out and apply things. Every single class had a portion of the job that I do now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Lucas first moved to New York City after graduation, she worked as an \u201cinteriorscape\u201d specialist for private clients. But she quickly realized she wanted to work outside and in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic spaces are amazing, and this is a great way to manage New York City\u2019s backyard and have a long-term impact,\u201d Lucas says.<\/p>\n

The park has a nationally accredited witch hazel collection which includes Hamamelis<\/em> virginiana. <\/em>This species is a New York City native on which 68 varieties of caterpillar depend for food. Witch hazel also provides shelter and food for birds and attracts pollinators.<\/p>\n

Madison Square Park Conservancy also contains an accredited arboretum. The arboretum includes 44 species of trees, including some that predate the space\u2019s official designation as a public park in 1847.<\/p>\n

Through her role, Lucas is involved in creating the latest edition of the city\u2019s urban forestry plan. This involves completing a census of trees in the city and developing plans to increase canopy cover throughout New York.<\/p>\n

Lucas is also the president of the Metro Hort Group. The community professional organization connects people working in industries like horticulture. The group advocates for better labor practices within the field, as well as organizing talks and their annual PLANT-O-RAMA trade show and career fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see a community of gardeners in New York City [who are] really passionate about the field,\u201d Lucas says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Fostering Sustainable Landscapes at the Urban-Rural Interface<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAHNR Alum Stephanie Lucas uses her training in plant science to enrich an iconic historic park in New York City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":241079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2224,2649,2303,156,2712,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-241078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cahnr","category-blue-pride","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture","category-profile","category-student-success","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 21:30:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241133,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241078\/revisions\/241133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/241079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241078"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=241078"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=241078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}