Events

    Hybrid Lecture: The Fascinating Feathers of the Sandgrouse

    Location: 

    Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The birds that populate the Arnold Arboretum rarely have to go far to find water. In the deserts of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, it's a different story, and the sandgrouse that lives in these arid environments has developed a fascinating adaptation to stay hydrated: these birds have a unique ability to absorb and hold water inside of their feathers. The chicks can't yet fly the long distance from their nests to the watering hole, so adult males make the long journey with the lifesaving water secreted away in their feathers. But how do their feathers hold water so efficiently? Dr...

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    Nature Journaling: A Creative Exploration of the Winter Landscape

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Bring your enthusiasm for the natural world and leave with a creative nature journal, inspired by the trees of the Arnold Arboretum. Nature journaling is all about expressing your curiosity and wonder through sketching, calligraphy, writing, or other forms of art-making. Tap into your creativity and let yourself be surprised by the diversity of forms on display in the winter landscape.

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    Foraging Walk: Tea Time at the Arboretum

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Join us for a winter foraging walk to learn what wild plants can be foraged and brewed into tea. Visit some of the Arboretum's tastiest winter plants, from sweet birch and sweet fern to sassafras and spicebush. You may even get to taste some of the teas yourself! Led by Manager of Adult Programming and Events Sarah Nechamen and Horticulturist Brendan Keegan.

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    Great Horned Owl Walk

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Dusk in December is a perfect time to look and listen for Great Horned Owls, often heard calling throughout the Arboretum’s collections. Join Horticulturist Brendan Keegan and Zoo New England's Matthew Kamm to hear about the owls' breeding and nesting behavior, learn how to go owling ethically, and possibly hear and see a few owls as well.

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    Conifer Walk

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    What is a conifer, exactly? How is it different from an evergreen, or a gymnosperm? Join docent Paul Eldrenkamp as he leads us through the different types of conifers and how to identify them, the reasons behind their distinctive needle-like forms, and their rise and fall in evolutionary history.

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    Arboretum Tour for Blind Participants

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Join us for a tour of the Arboretum, designed for a blind or visually impaired audience. Tour seasonal plant highlights and learn about Arboretum history from a trained docent, as you experience the Arboretum through smell, touch, sound, and detailed verbal descriptions.

    Accessibility: This tour will take place entirely on paved roads inside the Arboretum. The route is relatively flat and is accessible to wheelchairs and walkers. The tour will cover one mile or less, depending how quickly the group moves. Service animals are welcome.

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    Film Screening: In the Whale – The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    In the Whale is a feature-length film about, arguably, the greatest true fish story ever told. It's the account of a man, Michael Packard, who survived to tell the tale of being swallowed and then spit out by a whale.

    A Q&A with filmmaker David Abel will follow the screening.

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    Water Stories with the Artist Evelyn Rydz

    Location: 

    Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge

    Join the artist and educator Evelyn Rydz for an afternoon of conversation and collective artmaking within the exhibition Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view September 18–December 16, 2023.

    The exhibition presents artworks that tell alternative stories of water experience in the context of climate change, while encouraging viewers to appreciate the multivalent meaning of water and their own relationship to it. Rydz has repeatedly observed the increasing impacts on natural and cultural ecosystems throughout her various field...

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    Lecture: The Botany of Thanksgiving

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Talking more than turkey: This lecture will celebrate the plants that bring Thanksgiving to life. From stuffing, to cranberry sauce, to potatoes, cloves, carrots, celery, lettuce and sage. Come and explore the biology of this annual feast with Dr. Pamela Diggle, professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    Film Screening: Wild Life

    Location: 

    Harvard Divinity School, James Room (Swartz Hall), 45 Francis Ave., Cambridge

    Join us for a public screening of Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhely and Jimmy Chin's extraordinary film Wild Life—a story of love, wildness, and restoration in Patagonia, Chile. The film follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting.

    A discussion on the film will follow the screening. Special guests include Kris Tompkins and Chai Valarhelyi in conversation with guest curator Geralyn Dreyfous and HDS writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams.

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    On-Site Tree Mob: Urban Wilds

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Bussey Brook Meadow is left mostly untouched by human management and interference, creating a flourishing urban wild with wildflowers, wetland, and both native and introduced plants and animals. Join Dr. Peter Del Tredici to explore this unique space and learn about the history of the meadow, the plant patterns that appear there, and the long-term ecology of the site.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    Full Moon Walk

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Take in the sights and sounds of the arboretum under the light of a full moon. Facilitator Bob Linscott will lead the group through some mindfulness in nature practices as we meander along the paved road to our final nighttime viewing location on top of Bussey Hill.

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    Meandering Meditation: An Introduction to Mindfulness in Nature

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Nature has the power to evoke calm and beauty when we can step out of our hectic lives. This immersive experience in the Arnold Arboretum will invite participants to meander through the arboretum, stopping for several guided mindfulness practices to deepen their connection with the natural world. This will be a guided experience with some periods of silence. No experience with mindfulness or meditation necessary.

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    Meandering Meditation: An Introduction to Mindfulness in Nature

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    This immersive experience in the Arnold Arboretum is an opportunity to step out of our hectic lives. Participants will be invited to meander through the Arboretum, with occasional stops for guided mindfulness practices to deepen their connection with the natural world. No experience with mindfulness or meditation necessary.

    Learn more and RSVP.

    An additional workshop is available on...

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    Old and New: Herbarium Vouchers and the Plants They Came From

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The Arboretum's Herbarium contains over 100 thousand dried and preserved plants, and almost half were taken from the Arboretum's own collections. These Herbarium specimens offer a blast from the past for these historic trees, and this unique program offers a chance to see both ends of the timeline: we will begin inside the Herbarium with a look at historical specimens from decades ago, and then head outside to see the trees they grew into.

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