Houston Arboretum and Nature Center is a nonprofit arboretum and nature center in Memorial Park that preserves a substantial native habitat within Houston while also functioning as a botanical garden. First envisioned by Robert A. Vines, it grew from park land set aside by the Houston City Council in 1951 for the Houston Botanical Society. Its development included a children’s botanical hall in 1966 and the start of the nature center in 1967, followed by a renaming in the 1980s and major improvements in the 1990s. Today it offers more than five miles of trails through forest, pond, wetland, and meadow environments.