Field Notes

The Flora of the Library Field is an ongoing project to document the species of native and introduced plants that make up the living environment at METRO's Library Field. Beginning in March 2026, Mark Horton-Sacha and Devon Cummings will conduct a comprehensive survey to identify and catalog the naturally occurring...

We’ve already begun to activate the Library Field as a site of knowledge creation through our fall hikes and spring stewardship workshops, and we’re eager to add some more formal programming  — events that likewise take advantage of our wooded setting — in Spring and Summer 2026.  While the “stump...

From July through November of 2025 we led participants from METRO member institutions on a 15-stop, 2 hour hike at the Library Field as part of our ongoing participatory design process. This report is a review of the input we received, and it offers some insight into what our next...

Help us build the vision for the Library Field! (Note that registration for these 2025 events is CLOSED. If you'd like to join us for an orientation hike, please review our event listings, and sign up for the next available spot.) Join METRO staff for a guided 45-minute hike, where...

Tremendous thanks to BKS Studio for their assistance this summer with the first phase of community engagement work as we bring this project to life. Despite a short timeline and some sweltering hot summer days, we had a lot of fun convening library workers from our region for a variety...

Previous posts have described our recent Library Field "Outdoor Imaginings," hosted with Seattle-based librarian-consultants BKS Studio. Throughout the summer these sessions migrated from Greenpoint to Ward Pound Ridge to Zoom, and allowed us to explore with a range of METRO members how you might use a shared outdoor program space...