The Emerald Necklace: More than Just Brookline’s Accessory

When Jeanine Knox was a Boston University undergraduate in the early 1970s, the Emerald Necklace was an unsafe and unpleasant place to be.

“We were told not to go into the Back Bay Fens or the Riverway,” said Knox, now the director of external relations for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy (ENC). “‘It’s dangerous. It’s dirty. You don’t want to go near there,’” some warned her.

In 2014, however, nearly 4,500 people did go there and were greeted at the ENC’s visitor center.

“Things have changed since I was in college for the better,” Knox said of the Emerald Necklace – a series of nine connected public parks totaling 1,100 acres, funded and maintained by the town of Brookline and city of Boston.

Constructed by renowned park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, the “Jeweled Girdle”, as it was formerly called, consists of more than 7,000 trees, 200 woodland acres and eight miles of riverbanks and shore land. It’s because of Knox’s and the conservancy’s efforts, including over 2,400 volunteer hours of restoration, that the famed chain of parks has evolved to fit its more recent title.

Knox describes the ENC, which was established in 1998, as “a stewardship organization that brings people together to advocate care for and enliven the parks.”

By way of several annual fundraisers, the conservancy is able to contribute more than a $1.5 million a year towards that goal – a financial burden that would otherwise fall on the Brookline and Boston parks budgets.

Together with its public partners, the ENC promotes the maintenance of the park, and the involvement of its surrounding communities, particularly Brookline.

That involvement is how Knox began work with the conservancy a decade ago. “I actually started as a volunteer, and was just very impressed with the organization,” she said.

It was her passion for the outdoors and the Emerald Necklace itself, in addition to her convictions about the importance of parks to people in neighboring towns and cities that led her to serve ENC’s mission – even in the early days when the conservancy was only three people strong.

“I see parks as infrastructure of a city,” Knox said. “I think they’re just as important as our other infrastructures including transportation networks.”

Knox has facts to back up that assertion.

“We know the benefit of the trees. We know they sequester carbon. We know they help with erosion and runoff, and we know that they help clean water,” she said. “They actually lower the temperatures. They mitigate the effects of heat islands in the city.”

Knox says the research and statistics about the park’s ability to reduce stress have proven the long time assertion about parks being good for your mental health.

“It’s almost like we knew it intuitively,” she said.

“Now we’re starting to recognize the connection between health and people being able to get out and take a walk in the park,” she added. “I think that’s why it’s just absolutely critical that we provide this.”

In fact, the park will be used for that purpose during the upcoming Emerald Necklace Yoga Fest, happening on Oct. 4.

The all-day event, open to everyone, will be a “friend-raiser and a fundraiser,” according to Knox. Participants will pay $50 to take part, but the goal is to reinforce the connection between outdoor fitness activities and parks, all while collecting money to provide free programs in the future.

Other ideas are already in the works. “We’re also looking into the popularity of an afternoon boot camp in the park,” said Knox.

But they aren’t the only programs the ENC offers.

For years, the conservancy has given free weekend walking tours to visitors, including one that guided 665 people through the Fens and Riverway in 2014, and, kicking off Oct.18 is the first ever Emerald Necklace bike tour, soon to be offered seasonally.

Youth Programs and a popular five-week summer concert series, attended by 50 percent more people in 2014 than the year before, are also part of what the ENC provides to Brookline and other neighboring communities.

Knox says it all harkens back to the original Olmstead mission of “ensur[ing] that this gem of a park system is healthy and thriving for years to come.”

The programs are also helpful in achieving Knox’s ambition of increasing the park’s profile. “I would like the name Emerald Necklace to be as popular and understood as Fenway Park,” she said.

Knox is confident her group can succeed in raising knowledge about the parks. “I think it just keeps getting better and better. More and more people recognize the value of a park system in their city,” she said. “It’s like, parks aren’t just for pretty anymore. There’s meat there, there’s infrastructure. It adds to the life of the city.”