Friends of Joe W. Brown Memorial Park & Louisiana Nature Center was established in 2010 by a group of concerned residents of eastern New Orleans to promote the restoration and preservation of the Joe W. Brown Memorial

Park (the Park) and the Audubon Louisiana

Nature Center (the Nature Center') for the enjoyment of current and future generations of eastern New Orleans, the New Orleans Metropolitan area and beyond.

The group also endeavors to establish public-private partnerships with government, community organizations, and businesses, to beautify the Park, the Nature Center, and thoroughfares leading to both; to preserve and to increase native wildlife and flora; and to provide facilities for research and education for area elementary, high school, and college botany and horticultural programs.

Unfortunately, the Audubon Nature Center, despite having been named one of the top five urban nature centers in the United States, is the only nature center in the state that has sat idle since Hurricane Katrina. Its assets included three miles of hardwood bottomland forest on an 86-acre site; an Interpretive Center with live animals and wildlife exhibits, a teaching Botany Center/Greenhouse with plants native to Louisiana, and the largest planetarium in New Orleans. The Nature Center provided a unique, affordable and convenient learning experience for New Orleans and its surrounding areas.

The desire to establish Friends of Joe W. Brown Memorial Park & Louisiana Nature Center came about as a result of recognizing the need for partnering with the community to preserve and. conserve the precious natural resources that exist in eastern New Orleans. The historic

Greenhouse at the Nature Center is just one of those resources.