The Greenest Thumb in New York City
(This story first appeared in the Spring 1999 issue of Allegheny magazine.)
As a political science major at Allegheny, Erika Svensen '90 first learned about global environmental problems. She recalls classes that opened her eyes to the broader and deeper meaning of "environment." Today, she fulfills her collegiate aspiration to make a difference by working as an urban forester, bringing communities closer to the natural world.
Svensen is the director of Green Thumb, a program in New York City with the goal of bridging the gap between urban areas and the environment. "Green Thumb takes advantage of open spaces in the city to establish a pond or a garden, or to plant trees and herbs," Svensen says. "People often misconstrue our role as 'beautifying' the city, but it goes far beyond that."
Thanks to Green Thumb, New York City now boasts 750 more parks. These areas frequently serve as counseling areas, community centers, recreational spots, or just places that offer families a respite from city life. And in addition to increasing canopy cover and creating a vast number of environmental oases, Svensen says Green Thumb even takes some credit for redirecting drug dealers away from street corners that have been turned into mini-parks.
After graduating from Allegheny, Svensen worked for the Rockefeller Foundation in its Global Environment Program. The program approached the environment in an interdisciplinary fashion, gathering professionals from diverse fields to collaborate on new approaches to problems. "I was impressed to find lawyers, doctors, economists and others working together, drawing on the strengths and commonalties of each other."
She also traveled to India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, exploring innovative ways to approach the complicated issue of environmental politics. Through this experience she discovered she was not alone in the struggle to better the environment--that people worldwide were seeking solutions to the same problems.
Svensen went on to attend the Yale School of Forestry, working with Wil Burch, a noted sociologist and leader in urban forestry. After Yale, she joined the U.S. Forestry Service in Baltimore. "I worked to build a community," she says, "where people considered nature as central to their daily lives as their careers, the society and the economy." This experience led to her position with Green Thumb.
Svensen still values "the nurturing and inspiring professors" at Allegheny. Especially important, she recalls, were classes taught by Giles Wayland Smith and Eric Pallant, who created "a wonderful marriage between people, politics and culture-it made me view the environment from a political perspective for the first time."
- Rupa Ranganathan '00
