It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto,[4] as well as being a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource.

The Royal Botanical Gardens' mandate derives from a Provincial Act of 1941, centred on human interaction with the natural world and protection of environmentally significant lands that form the western tip of Lake Ontario.

[5] The 980 hectares (2,422 acres) of nature sanctuary owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens is largely a remnant of the Dundas Marsh Game Preserve created in 1927.

Unusually, Royal Botanical Gardens is both the owner of the land under the provincially significant Class 1 Wetland,[10] Cootes Paradise,[11] and Grindstone Marsh as well as regulator of activities on the water, despite it being an inlet of Lake Ontario.

Royal Botanical Gardens developed as a concept in the 1920s under the City of Hamilton Board of Park Management, led by Thomas McQuesten.

Initially the proposed botanical garden was to be located along the south shore of Cootes Paradise Marsh surrounding the Hamilton campus of McMaster University.

[13] At the same time as the proposal for the botanical gardens was under consideration, the City of Hamilton was undertaking an ambitious program of beautification on the nearby Burlington Heights.

The North-Western Entrance to Hamilton project included an extensive set of gardens designed by the Toronto firm of Wilson, Bunnell and Borgstrom.

In the 1960s growth in horticultural expertise enriched the gardens and its programs, including new staff such as taxonomist Dr. James Pringle and Curator Freek Vrugtman.

The extensive system of nature trails, more than 20 kilometres (12 mi) in length, has remained accessible to the local community within walking distance or by taking public transit.

Major natural areas include trails through the valley of the lower Grindstone Creek, Rock Chapel, north and south shores of Cootes Paradise, and Princess Point.

[citation needed] Innovative educational programs are operated from both RBG's main building in Burlington and the Nature Interpretive Centre, located in the Arboretum to the north of Cootes Paradise in Hamilton.