The Burke Museum Project

…even modest increases in the native plant cover on suburban properties significantly increases the number and species of breeding birds, including birds of conservation concern. As gardeners and stewards of our land, we have never been so empowered to help save biodiversity from extinction, and the need to do so has never been so great.” 

Doug Tallamy, Professor of Entomology, University of Delaware

About the project

We need native plants everywhere, including in urban environments. Oxbow is proud to have produced over 70,000 native plants for the landscape of the Burke Museum, on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle.

The grounds, designed by GGN (building designed by Olson Kundig), provide museum visitors with a meaningful and interactive experience with two of Washington’s most iconic and beautiful ecosystems: the Douglas fir forest and the Puget Sound camas prairie. Opened in the fall of 2019, the New Burke landscape seeks to connect people with the floral heritage of Washington State in a way that inspires appreciation and personal action.

Oxbow collected seeds and grew plants for the project from 2015. These plants are an active element of the New Burke’s outdoor exhibit space. The plants educate tens of thousands of museum visitors annually about native Washington plants, while also providing healthy habitat for wildlife in an urban Seattle setting.

Image: Courtesy of The Burke Museum

For more information on the project, plus an extensive visual list of the trees, evergreen shrubs, ferns, and other plants featured in the landscape, please visit the Burke Museum website.