Boston Urban Wilds
A photographic study documenting the impact of the Boston Urban Wilds conservation program, an initiative to protect the city’s remaining natural ecosystems.
Boston Urban Wild 01-03, Belle Island Marsh, East Boston; View of Boston’s last remaining salt marsh and the city skyline
PROJECT STATEMENT
The Boston Urban Wilds conservation program is an ongoing initiative to protect the city’s remaining natural ecosystems —salt marshes, wetlands, meadows, and woodlands—that have persisted despite the detrimental human activity that surrounds them. When the program began in 1976 there were 143 remnants of these ecosystems, or Urban Wilds, within Boston that needed protection due to their “environmental and natural significance.”
The Urban Wilds provide the city’s human inhabitants with access to nature for reflection, respite, recreation, and education in our daily lives. But just as importantly, the Urban Wilds provide habitats for plants and animals, and areas for crucial ecological functions that are needed to sustain all life within the city. Urban Wilds protect shorelines from erosion, store floodwater, filter stormwater run-off, produce oxygen, and reduce the urban “heat island” effect.
For nearly 50 years municipal agencies and community groups have sought to conserve the remaining Urban Wilds that were identified in 1976. Leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Boston Urban Wilds initiative in 2026, I’m conducting a photographic study of the Urban Wilds that have been protected and lost in order to document the impact of this landmark conservation program.
*Boston Urban Wilds: A Natural Area Conservation Program. Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1976.
Cover to the original 1976 Boston Urban Wilds Study
https://archive.org/details/bostonurbanwilds00bost/page/n3/mode/2up