Ranger wins national award

While the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site on Warren Street has both lost its historic oak and been closed to visitors for the past few years, its rangers have been busy. One, Lisa Stearns, just garnered one of the top national awards given by the National Park Service for excellence in interpretation. Her work creating a third-grade curriculum on landscape design and community, called “Good Neighbors,’’ won the notice of National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis. The curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Boston and Brookline public schools, the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, and a number of Olmsted park groups, has been formally adopted into the Brookline third-grade program. It includes visits to Olmsted parks, designing 3-D models of parks, and drawing. The curriculum was featured in the August edition of Landscape Architecture magazine. “Discovering that they can play a role in supporting public spaces is an empowering revelation for many of the children,” said Stearns. “They begin to imagine their own role in the care and stewardship of landscapes.” For more information, visit www.nps.gov/frla. - Andreae Downs