Viveros de Coyoacán, Mexico City

Viveros de Coyoacán is a combination tree nursery and public park which covers 38.9 hectares in the Coyoacán borough of Mexico City. The nursery was founded by Miguel Angel de Quevedo in the early 20th century as a way to provide seedlings for the reforestation of Mexico’s badly damaged forests, especially around Mexico City. The first lands were donated by Quevedo himself with the federal government then getting involved, allowing for the planting of 140,000 trees between 1913 and 1914 alone. Today, the nursery produces one million seedlings per year mostly for projects around Mexico City. The area was declared a national park in 1938 and today attracts between 2,500 and 3,000 visitors daily, many of whom come to exercise or feed the area’s very tame squirrels. The overpopulation of squirrels and a large rat population have been problems for the park. ()