NOVA Parks News
NOVA Parks Commemorates Winkler Botanical Preserve Founder and First Year Successes
Winkler Botanical Preserve founder and first-year successes commemorated with a new permanent sign.
ALEXANDRIA TIMES
ALX Now
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE PACKET
On Tuesday, November 28, NOVA Parks commemorated Catherine Winkler, founder of the Winkler Botanical Preserve (Preserve), with the unveiling of a new permanent sign about its history. NOVA Parks Board members and Alexandria city and school leaders recognized the Preserve’s successes since its transfer to NOVA Parks in September 2022.
“I'm so excited by what NOVA Parks has been able to do in a short time and I'm super excited about what we'll be able to do in the future,” said Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. “I personally had my kids, both my kids, here at summer camp when they were growing up, and those are indelible experiences that we still talk about at home. The fact that other kids will have that experience is going to be very exciting.”
In its first year operating the Preserve, NOVA Parks’ successes include:
- Through partnership with Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), 603 3rd and 4th grade students visited the Preserve on school field trips.
- All 9 sessions of inaugural summer of Camp Winkler were offered, serving 56 1st-5th graders.
- Summer camp scholarship pilot program was successfully launched in partnership with City of Alexandria.
- Science programs are being developed with ACPS staff to incorporate educational Standards of Learning.
- Expanded parking lot engineering is in progress.
- Monthly programming is in progress, including scout merit, art, photography, and environmental education, as well as guided nature hikes.
“[I’m] thinking about and getting inspiration from the beauty of this oasis and thinking about the transition that it goes through each season, and every learning opportunity that goes along with it,” said ACPS Superintendent Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt. “This is truly an experience, hands on, that children truly engage in. We look forward to many more field trips.”
Located in Alexandria’s west end, the Winkler Botanical Preserve provides the public access to nature and protects plants native to the Potomac region. In 2022, the Preserve was donated to NOVA Parks along with an endowment to help maintain and further develop the preserve. The gift was very much in keeping with the Winkler family’s mission to give back to the communities they were instrumental in developing.
“After six years without programming, the gift of this 44-acre hidden gem to NOVA Parks has brought new vitality and use to this treasure,” said NOVA Parks Board Vice Chair and City of Alexandria appointee Sean Kumar. “I'm proud we have taken on this property for the benefit of City residents and our neighbors in the region, and thankful to the Winker family for entrusting us with its future.”
Visit novaparks.com/Winkler for more information about Winkler Botanical Preserve, including family programming and summer camps.
About NOVA Parks
Founded in 1959 as a conservation organization, NOVA Parks (Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) represents three counties and three cities — Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, the City of Alexandria, the City of Falls Church, and the City of Fairfax. The regional agency manages 35 parks with 12,380 acres of parkland, including waterparks, golf courses, campsites, historic sites, event venues, boat launches, annual holiday light shows, and a high adventure ropes course.
About Winkler Botanical Preserve
The Winkler Botanical Preserve was founded in the mid-1970s by Catherine Winkler Herman, a philanthropist and environmentalist who died in 2007. During her lifetime, she gave millions of dollars to charities across the Washington area and the nation. Mrs. Herman established the Preserve with a gift of land and a substantial endowment in memory of her husband, Mark Winkler. Mark Winkler’s real estate development firm operated in the Washington area for more than 60 years before its sale in 2006. Mark Winkler and Catherine Winkler Herman’s daughter, Tori Winkler Thomas, led the Preserve for more than 25 years before her retirement and was responsible for the Preserve’s design, including the distinctive log cabin headquarters, Catherine’s Lodge, which served as the center for the ecological education program Ms. Thomas founded. This program partnered with the Alexandria school system to serve thousands of Alexandria school children for more than 20 years. Ms. Thomas, a landscape architect and urban planner, established and maintained the Preserve’s emphasis on native plants.
