Hospitality for All Creatures, Great & Small #258

Rauni Kew:

concept behind this was that with haddock fisheries being closed, now open again, but cod fisheries being closed, Maine shrimp fisheries being closed, fishermen with the management that was going on in the Gulf of Maine were really being squeezed. And so it was really about how can we start expanding markets for fishermen by introducing under loved, underappreciated, lesser known seafood to people.

Derrick Daly:

When the monarchs on their journey from Mexico, when they land in Cape Elizabeth, we welcome them as we would a hotel guest. And they find plants that provide them with nectar and pollen. They provide milkweed to lay their eggs on. And they they find an environment safe, free from the overuse of pesticides so they can feel safe, comfortable and happy. And every year for the last three years, we've actually watched the females lay their eggs, watch the eggs hatch, the little caterpillars eat the milkweed down to almost nothing, make cocoons and then do on, move on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine Radio show number 258, hospitality for all creatures great and small. Airing for the first time on Sunday, August 28, Maine provides a way station for a diversity of living creatures. Not only do we welcome human visitors to our state, but we also host critters that fly, swim and scamper. Today we talk with Ronnie Q. And Derek Daly of the Inn by the Sea about their innovative offerings for monarch butterflies, foster dogs and New England cottontail rabbits, all on the grounds of a luxury hotel. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

My next guest is an individual that I've known for quite a few years now. This is Ronnie Q. And her background is in marketing and public relations. Currently working in hospitality, she manages public relations and GRE for Maine's luxurious Inn by the Sea. The Inn has achieved LEED Silver Maine DEP Environmental Leader Certification, a Legislative Sentiment as an Environmental Leader and was selected Preferred Hotel Group Sustainability Hotel of the year in 2014. Ronnie served on the Maine Tourism Commission as the chair of the Greater Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau and is the Greater Portland Regional Representative for the Maine Office of Tourism Regional Committee. She frequently has published articles on sustainable hospitality in industry journals. We're pretty privileged to have you here today.

Rauni Kew:

Well, thank you very much for having me. I'm delighted to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I really love this topic. I love to travel and I love what's going on in the state of Maine. And you're someone is telling me that Maine is getting greener and tourism is getting greener and the Inn by the Sea is right at the front there.

Rauni Kew:

Absolutely. I'm going to go back a few years, but after the war, when people started traveling a lot globally, it was about 1960 that people really started to think about sustainability and preserving and protecting the places that people like to travel for future generations, which is really what sustainability is all about. And it was a huge movement, but it didn't get a lot of traction here. And I think part of the reason that it didn't get a lot of traction in the United States is when you go back to the 60s and the 70s and you look at all of these conferences and bureaus that were set up to look at it, constantly talking about indigenous peoples and that kind of language. And it was usually revolving around very sensitive ecosystems like the Galapagos or a rainforest. And so nobody here really caught on to that concept. But in 1992, an economist by the name of John Elkington came up with a very simple catchphrase for something that he and a bunch of other economists had been working on for business for 10 years. And he came up with the triple bottom line. And the triple bottom line was such a simple roadmap for everybody to follow. What it said very simply, in simple terms, was that in this day and age, you were no longer profitable if you just considered the single bottom line. You also had to consider the environment, and you also had to consider people. A year later, he coined another phrase, which was People, Planet, Profit. Well, that roadmap was so simple. Everybody got excited about this, and tourism all started looking at who they were and what they were doing and redefining themselves. And so you ended up with ecotourism and cultural tourism and sustainable tourism and all of these different kinds of tourisms that were all very niche oriented, but at the center of every single one of them was this business plan. People, Planet, profit. John Elkington was very precise about what people was. Planet is obvious. You know, reduce your carbon footprint, do what you can for the environment. Profit is obvious. We all know that we need to be profitable to stay in business. But the people he said were what he called stakeholders. Not shareholders, but stakeholders. And those were the people that helped you be successful and be profitable in your business. So it was your community, and in our industry, it's your growers, your planters, your vendors. The people in your community you have to support, but you should support the other people that help you be profitable. So that was a roadmap for tourism that was really easy consider. And in the early 2000s, it was a huge boom. All of a sudden we had over 350 really good certification programs for tourism. And every single one of them was based around People, Planet, Profit. And it really made it easy for the industry to start greening. And they did. Everybody started doing things. The End by the Sea was one of the leaders. We started down this path 15 years ago. And what most people in the beginning was, they focused on reductions in water, waste, energy, and chemicals. And I think really the reason for that was that the hospitality and the tourism industry discovered that if they reduced energy, if they reduced water, if they did all of these things, they actually were also saving money. So that helped. The profit piece, the people piece, has come along slowly. After people sort of have done as much as they can with design features, people have now turned their attention to community, vendors, growers, producers, and all that kind of thing. And a lot of community collaboration is going on. So some of the things that we've done at the end by the sea for the planet piece are the design features that we put in is, for instance, we have solar panels that heat a salinated pool. We have recycled Sheetrock walls. We were the first hotel in New England to have dual flush toilets to save water. You know, we have recycled cork floors in our spa area. We have recycled rubber floors in the cardio room. So some of the things that help the hotel guests are we have air to air heat exchangers all through the inn, which gives you fresh air constantly being mixed with the cooled or the heated air, but it gives you a very clean environment. And of course, none of the guests really care about this, so they want to come to a green hotel. They don't know about your design features, but we want our guests to really have that quintessential main experience. We want to connect them to people here. We want to connect them to place. So we have a lot of programs that bring the people in, both our guests as well as our community. So some of the programs that we would do for hotel guests to connect them to the greening that goes on at the inn is we have a naturalist from the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust that does ecology beach walks for our guests. And they take guests down to the beach and they talk about the importance of the sand dunes. They talk about endangered species like the piping plovers. And it really connects them to that main experience and gives them the feel of this wonderful natural environment they're in. We have something that Derek will talk about when he's here to talk to you. Our head gardener, who's wonderful, Derek Daly. He does something called the Bug's Life program. And this was going to be a program that we did for one summer, and it's just taken off and it really connects people to all the green design features that we have at the inn. When something like a writer comes in to write about humanizes it, it connects people, it makes them care. It's a program for kids where they create their own bug costumes. And then they learn about ecosystems and predator and prey. And they learn about the migration routes of the monarch butterfly. And they look at the larvae the in growing on milkweed and they. They go and pick blueberries and they do. It connects them to the environment and they learn a lot about ecosystems. So that's another terrific program. And then on Tuesday evenings, we do something called A Taste of Maine. And we invite vendors to come in and talk to guests about what it's like to do business in Maine. So we will have. We've had lobster fishermen come in and have samplings of lobster. We have somebody like Cold River Vodka come in, and we have tastings of vodka and then can tell us how they turn Maine potatoes into a wonderful vodka. And so it really connects our guests again to people, but also to place. And then one of the programs that we did years ago, that has just been an ongoing program for us that really is the perfect sustainability program in that it helps preserve and protect a traditional main industry and the resources for future generations while using the resources now. And that was. We were on the steering committee for the Gulf of Maine Research's out of the Blue program. And that was one of the most amazing experiences that I've ever had because there were three chefs. I don't know why I was there, but anyway, I was there, and we had the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's research, and we had Maine fishermen there telling us what was abundant and what was available in quantity. And then we had the chefs there saying what it was that they'd like for seafood on their menus. And the concept behind this was that with haddock fisheries being closed now open again, but cod fisheries being closed, Maine shrimp fisheries being closed, the fishermen with the management that was going on in the Gulf of Maine were really being squeezed. And so it was really about, how can we start expanding markets for fishermen by introducing under loved, underappreciated, lesser known seafood to people. And since 70% of the seafood that's consumed in the United States is actually consumed in restaurants, chefs have an enormous part to play in introducing people to fish that are abundant but under loved or lesser known. So for the next about four or five years, we only served lobster. And then what we were calling underutilized, but the lesser known seafood in sea glass. And the way we came up with the five species that we served was the fishermen would say, okay, these fish are abundant. And the chefs would say, ugh, no, I don't want to serve that. That's not delectable. And then the chefs would say, well, what about this seafood? We really want to serve that. And the Gulf of Maine Research would look it up and say, it's being taken out at 90% of what's allowed. We can't expand markets for the fishermen. And then the chefs would come up with another fish. And the fishermen would say, the fishermen were so knowledgeable about the environmental concerns, it was amazing. They'd say, well, that fish actually has a 30 year lifespan. If we overfish it, it will never come back. Or that fish is so far out, it would cost us too much money to bring it in, or we have to de gill it and ice it and brine it in order for you to use it. So we can't. And we kept going back and forth until we came up with the five species that were being brought in at maybe less than 10% of what was allow so the markets could expand that the chefs deemed delectable and that the fishermen said were abundant and could bring them in. So that was a great project, and we've been very proud to be part of that. And that's part of our restaurant program. We, of course, work with local chefs. I mean, with local farms and producers, as much as we can. And actually, we have something right now that I'm crazy about. It's teeny greenies. Have you known? Do you know about teeny?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I do not know about teeny greenies.

Rauni Kew:

Teeny greenies are amazing. These are challenged adults. They have greenhouses in Saco, Maine, and they create miniature farms that are about this big that come in, and they're microgreens, and they're all kinds of microgreens. A million different flavors of microgreens. And every week, they deliver these little tiny farms to the chefs at Sea Glass. And all week long, when they're making salads, they pick microgreens. So they couldn't be fresher, they couldn't be more local. And these farmers are learning to farm sustainably, and it gives them an economic path to, you know, to independence. So it's just the most wonderful program, but it's also a very delectable product. So we love to be working with teeny greenies. They're terrific, so I recommend them to everybody.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

They'll have to check it out.

Rauni Kew:

Yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what are the five species of fish that you're currently working with?

Rauni Kew:

Mackerel, silver hake, whiting, pollock, dogfish. Was that five? I think so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That might have been four, but we'll let you stop there.

Rauni Kew:

That's great. Oh, redfish. So that. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And having as a kind of a vegetarian pescatarian, I've eaten a lot of fish, and I know that fish have very specific taste to them. So when you say that your chefs say these are delectable, what is it about Hager?

Rauni Kew:

Whiting would be a flaky white fish that people could. Pollock is a flaky white fish too. So for, you know, people are used to eating haddock or cod. That wouldn't be a problem. Redfish and dogfish are definitely not as flaky. They're denser, they're, you know, they would have stronger flavors. And mackerel definitely has its own flavor. The mackerel we usually served smoked, we would do amuses with them and mix them with other things so that people would enjoy them and be interested in going further with that. And I know that with the dogfish we did a lot of, you know, dogfish stew, that kind of thing. So giving it lots of sauces and a different kind of taste. So, you know, trying to work with the fish that, that we had, the seafood that we had. But it's a great program.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how are people responded to that?

Rauni Kew:

People have really responded. We are no longer doing this, but for several years working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, they really, they were the spearhead of this program. They brought over information cards with pictures of the fish and you could get more information on the GMR website. We would talk to our service so that they knew and we would have 10 day promotions five times a year really marketing these fish. So you'd have the story on the fish, you'd have the story on the fisherman. And when a guest, as you know, sitting at Sea Glass restaurant, looking out over the Atlantic and you can see the lobster boys, lobster boats bobbing on the horizon right there. And when you explain to a guest why we weren't serving haddock or cod or something that they actually had requested and this is why we were serving this and actually the chef used to come out if we had someone who was sort of pushing back and he'd say, you know what, try it. If you don't like it, I'm not going to charge you for your meal. And of course they would eat it and it would be wonderful. So they were always happy. But in fact when you told them the story of what it was that we were trying to accomplish and that it was actually a program that not only helped the biomass of fish that were in decline, I'm not going to say over fish because we're never quite sure why fish are in certain species the biomass goes down, but not only help the biomass for certain fisheries, but also help sustainability for the main fishing industry and trying to expand markets for local fishermen. They were thrilled to get on board. It actually made their meal much more interesting and I think probably tasted better because people just love to give back to the region that they visit. Another program that we have that I think is terrific and really sort of is almost a year long program and it's really about the community support piece and it's about the education piece. One of the things that Elkington did say in his People Planet, Prophet was that it was a responsibility also to educate people on sustainability. But the people that I think do that really well. He didn't say People, Planet, Profit, Inspire, which is too bad, but our National Parks Department did. They say preserve, protect and inspire. So they are certainly sustainable in that they are preserving natural spaces for future generations while allowing people to use them now. But the inspiration piece, I think is really important, and that's why we try and connect people to things like the beach, ecology, walks. But we do a school program that I love. All through the month of December, anyone who comes to the inn and makes a reservation. For every reservation made, we buy a school book for one of seven schools in South Portland off the reading lists of the local school librarians. We actually don't buy the books they do because we wouldn't want to guess what it is that they need. But they all have wish lists for books that they need, and they're usually just reading books that they don't have a budget for. So this is a terrific program. Guests love it when they hear about this, and guests often will just give us a check to buy more books because they love doing that. But the same kids in the school systems also help us with the giving tree. And we have a giving tree in the lounge over the holidays. It has handmade ornaments from these students. And the guests will exchange an ornament and bring back warm clothes for the food banks. And we work with Project Grace on this, and Project Grace distributes the warm clothes. And we get stacks of warm clothes and hats and mittens and scarves and wonderful things to our local food banks all winter long. And then those students that help with the ornaments come back in January and we talk to them. And I love this when we do this, we talk to them about thinking about a different business model. And they're usually fourth or fifth grade students, so they've all had business practice in that they've sold a lot of painted rocks or lemonade stands. Painted rocks are actually very big. And so we talk to them about thinking about not just the profit that you get, but also doing something for the community and thinking about the environment. And they're very in tune with the environment, and they have lots of great ideas. And so we show them that by creating these ornaments and by distributing this to the food bank, they've also helped their community. So that's one pillar of this. And then by helping us do this program, they've helped us with the profit piece because it's all part of being at the end by the sea. And then they come back on Earth Day or around Earth Day and we do a big beach cleanup. So that's the planet piece. And then we move on to another class the next year. But it's a terrific program that involves the community in so many ways. But it also allows our guests to give back to the community that they love to visit in two ways, either with a book purchase or with purchasing warm clothes for less fortunate neighbors. So I love that program. That's a terrific program. Program.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

One of the things that I love about in by the Sea and Sea Glass is that there's a vegetarian option and I think also vegan.

Rauni Kew:

There is, yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And that for me is a big deal because I eat more plant based meals and there are a lot of patients that I have who I'm trying to encourage to eat in a more plant based fashion. And sometimes it's hard because when you go out, there's not always. There aren't always other things to have. So I really appreciate that about the in by the Sea, about sea glass and also your, your lounge area.

Rauni Kew:

Good. Oh, I'm so glad. I think that is getting to be even stronger. And we also. Things are now marked gluten free, vegan, vegetarian. So it's getting more and more complicated to design a menu. But very important because so many people are into wellness and really appreciate doing this. We have a program that's probably new since you were last at the inn. I don't know. One of the other connectors for being a green hotel is that we also have a collaboration with the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland. And we have a foster dog on site all the time. And sometimes they have their little vests that say adopt me, and sometimes they don't. We take them off because they look hot sometimes. But guests will come to the inn and they've left their dog at home or they're traveling without their dog or they no longer have a dog. And so they enjoy walking the dog. And we love, feed and house these foster dogs. And then guests fall in love over the weekend and adopt them and take them home. And we've been doing this now for a little over a year, but in the calendar year we had 46 dogs adopted from the inn. So again, it connects people to community, but it also is a great segue into. Into. Why do you do this? Well, because we're a green hotel. This is a community collaboration. So it gets that conversation started on all the good things that we've got going on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I haven't seen the foster dog program. It makes me think I need to go back and actually see what's going on there. But I do know that you are a pet friendly hotel and that that's one of the things that's quite visible whenever we go visit is, you know, there's very happy looking dogs that are sitting at their owner's feet or taking walks on the property or going to the beach.

Rauni Kew:

This was. And exactly the inn's been dog friendly for 20 years. So it was a very natural transition to actually try and help the dog community as well as collaborate with somebody in our. Because we already had the infrastructure in place to be dog friendly. So that's great. We have another pet that is another community collaboration. Not really a pet because he's in the wild and he's free, but the rabbitat, that was another great. And that would be part of the planet. PETE the state park had become completely infested in front of the inn and adjacent to the inn, several many acres had been completely taken over by bamboo and bittersweet. And it was a sanctuary, a wildlife sanctuary that really had no wildlife in it anymore because of this dense bamboo that had taken over. And so in a very unusual, I think, collaboration, public, private collaboration, we've worked with the Department of Conservation and we took over the really running that piece of land for five years. And we spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars ripping out the bamboo and the bittersweet and then replanting with the perfect habitat for New England cottontails, the woods off to the right around Crescent Beach State Park. Rachel Carson, People, fish and Wildlife People did study a few years ago and discovered, picked up scat and discovered that we had 69 New England cottontails and they're severely endangered. They think they're only about450,500 in Maine. So a lot of them were there. So we've planted with the perfect habitat for New England cottontails and we hope they'll thrive and do well. We go rabbit tracking every winter with the Department of Conservation, Derek and I, so it's kind of fun and I think the numbers are up, so it's good.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Great. Well, I was part of the Maine Magazine 48 hours when we went to Cape Elizabeth. I stayed at in by the Sea. This was a few years ago now. And in addition to all of the wonderful things you're describing that are very planet and profit and people oriented in a bigger sense, you also have a very comfortable place to be And a very wonderful place. I really enjoy getting up and going running in the morning, going out towards the lighthouses, going down to the beach. I mean it's a really special place place that you have available for people not only from out of the state but within the state of Maine.

Rauni Kew:

It is a wonderful place. I mean being on Crescent beach, the beach is just wonderful. It's an unspoiled beach. It's just gorgeous and wonderful bird watching at Kettle Cove in the morning. The inn actually has 14 JJ Audubon engravings that are on the third and the fourth floor of the 14 birds that you're most likely to see. So if guests want to get up and walk Great Pond early or go to Kettle Cove, they can take a look at the Audubons to see what they should be looking for. It's a fabulous location, as you say, and wonderful spa which is Silverlead certified.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's true. I've been there too.

Rauni Kew:

Lots of sense of place treatments. You know, our favorite being the sea waves massage which is done on an undulating bed with massage strokes that undulate with the ebb and flow of the ocean and marine based product and surf surrounds that. So you really get that Maine coast feeling when you're in the spa as well. Lots of Maine mud and sea salt kinds of treatments.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm planning to go back again there very soon because I feel like there's some things I've been missing. So now I need to and now I need to catch up. We've been speaking with Ronnie Q. Who manages public relations and green programs for Maine's luxurious Inn by the Sea and clearly has done a lot of thinking, a lot of acting in the sustainability movement within tourism and hospitality. So I appreciate all the work that you're doing and your thoughtfulness and your willingness to come in and talk with us today.

Rauni Kew:

Thank you Lisa. It's been great to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Derek Daly, who is the head gardener at in by the Sea. Derek is a Southern Maine Community College graduate of their Plant and Soil Technology School. After graduation he worked as an intern at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum before taking over the grounds of the inn more than 15 years ago. Derek also has private clients and last year one of his gardens was featured in the Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour. Each year Derek leads a group tour to a special garden for Cape Community Services. This year the tour went to the 20 acre Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire. Community members are invited to join Derek every Thursday at 10am for complimentary garden tours at the Inn all through the garden growing season. Derek also works with local schools heading up the community Earth Day beach cleanup at Crescent beach in the spring, and just last week he had two school groups of young students studying entomology visit the Inn for a hands on outdoor experience. Derek has appeared on NECN and in People Places and Plants Magazine, giving tips on gardening and sharing his passion for planting. Thanks for coming in.

Derrick Daly:

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I was looking at your Thursday at 10am Garden tour thing, but you also give garden garden tours to little guys.

Derrick Daly:

We do, yeah. That just happened today actually. It's called the Bug's Life Garden Tour and a child will come. We give them actually a blank paper bag. They transform that paper bag into an insect. A costume. We have paint, magic markers, crayons, tape. Your imagination just goes wild. You spend half an hour making your costume. You put on the costume and sometimes a headband with antenna to to mimic the monarch butterfly. We read them a story. It's called the Monarchs of Astor Way tells their whole life cycle. We tour the property and we highlight a nesting bird, a salamander, a frog and most importantly we highlight milkweed which is the only plant that the monarch butterfly can lay its eggs on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I was over in by the sea last week with my 15 year old daughter and we were looking at a milkweed plant. And the person who was leading the tour told me that you had a guest one time that actually cut off a pod of a butterfly and attempted to take it back home again. And somebody found out and said, no,

Rauni Kew:

no, you can't do that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And then you went back through and you actually, you taped that pod and other ones that had been removed back onto the plants.

Derrick Daly:

There's some crazy stories. That's one thing that happened one time I was leading a tour of children and just that morning, when the eggs hatch, the larva are very large, about maybe the size of your middle, your average middle finger. And they're striped black, white and yellow. So they're very easy to see. We had highlighted where all the larva, the caterpillars of the monarchs were. And when it came time for the tour, we walked by and they were all missing. And I was like, oh, typical, they're gone. But a boy who was staying in one of the rooms made kind of a crazy face. And so I said, do you know where these caterpillars are? And he had collected them all in a jar and had them under his bed in his hotel room, but he didn't know. And he took them back outside. We saw them, we put them back on the milkweed and all was good. But that's one of the learning tools is, do you know what I mean? A child is just prone to collect everything. Another quick funny story was one time they were longtime guests of Vienna and they had three labs, chocolate, yellow and black. Very rambunctious. They had those extended leashes and we went up to a milkweed and it was full of three beautiful caterpillars. We're telling the whole story. Milkweed, monarch butterflies, really getting into it. The dogs came running over to say hello to us and the owner yanked them back. But before she could yank them, the rope wrapped around the bottom of the milkweed. And as she pulled the leash back, all the leaves, it went right up the stalk of the milkweed. The leaves went flying. The monarchs, it was almost in slow motion. The caterpillars went flying up into the air and splat, splat, splat. And it was just like, oh, my God. The reality of nature really just hit you full on. But the dog actually wrote a huge apology letter and it was turned out be to, to be okay. I mean, three less monarchs, but it's just one of the crazy things that happens.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, so it's a big responsibility to take care of these butterflies.

Derrick Daly:

It really is. And it becomes more real every year. This Year they had another horrible overwintering in Mexico. There's many factors affecting the actual monarch butterfly. The crazy temperature fluctuations that we have, the overuse of Roundup, which is an herbicide, the lack of milkweed. People stay back in the day, I guess, 1950, 1960, the early 70s, milkweed just grew everywhere on roadsides. There weren't so many suburban subdivisions, there was just tons of it everywhere and no one even thought about it. But now every year, with our population growing and more and more building, there's less and less milkweed every year and less and less places for the monarch to actually lay their eggs.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You officially, the Inn by the Sea is considered a monarch way station, is that correct?

[Unidentified voice]:

Correct.

Derrick Daly:

Yeah. We've been deemed a monarch waystation, which means we provide food and shelter for them. When the monarchs on their journey from Mexico, when they land in Cape Elizabeth, we welcome them as we would a hotel guest. And they find plants that provide them with nectar and pollen. They provide milkweed to lay their eggs on. And they provide, they find an environment safe, free from the overuse of pesticides so they can feel safe, comfortable and happy. And every year for the last three years, we've actually watched the females lay their eggs, watch the eggs hatch. The little caterpillars eat the milkweed down to almost nothing, make cocoons and then do on, move on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You were telling me that it's actually, it's four generations before the butterflies go back to Mexico.

Derrick Daly:

They overwinter in Mexico and then early in February, they leave Mexico and go to Texas. And that's where the male and the female mate and they lay generation one. That male and the female pass and then their eggs hatch. They move further up the east coast, probably as far as North Carolina, same deal, mate and lay their eggs all along the way. And then the third generation is New Jersey, upstate New York, fourth generation, Maine and Canada. Yeah. So it's a really, really involved life cycle.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that must be part of the reason why it's so important to actually provide way stations for monarchs.

Derrick Daly:

Very important. It's something that's very tangible that an everyday person, you don't really even have to know anything about gardening, can do to help a species like a monarch butterfly continue its life cycle. Their numbers are plummeting. And so if you were to just allow milkweed to grow into your yard, whether you lived in Maine, North Carolina or Florida, you're doing something very positive for the environment by providing a place for a monarch butterfly to lay its eggs.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I remember reading the book by Barbara Kingsolver a few years ago, and it was about monarchs. She's a fiction writer, but she writes very environmentally aware pieces. And I really was struck by the fact that monarchs, they're not just a pretty insect. I mean, they really are representative of a greater group of pollinators that if they're not doing well, there's kind of something that's not going on in the right way for the ecosystem.

Derrick Daly:

Great point. Parallels the very existence of human beings. Not to be dramatic, but pollinators in every aspect. Bat, butterfly and bee are all not doing well because the environment is becoming so overloaded with pesticides. A lot of different problems. The crazy weather patterns we've been having and lack of space for them to raise their young, and diseases are affecting some of them too. But you can think of it this way, like the butterfly, as goes the butterfly, so goes we as the bees as well, because they provide so much of our food. I mean, every time you eat an apple, strawberry, cucumber, orange, it's because of a bee. A bee has pollinated that or a butterfly has. And it's thanks to them that we produce as much food as we do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And we've been hearing more and more about bees, but I don't know if people have heard as much about monarchs. What do you think?

Derrick Daly:

That's a good question. I never actually thought of the comparison of the two as whether you've heard about them, but I think if there are movies made about monarchs. Monarchs today. President Obama made a huge effort last year to preserve land for all pollinators. It's definitely something that is much more talked about today in 2016, than I would say, 1996 or 1986. I mean, every year more and more and more people learn about them, and schools make a huge effort to teach children about them too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you've been doing the work with the in by the sea, the. That you've been doing for 15, more than 15 years. So you've seen this whole evolution from perhaps people being much less aware of, completely unaware of things like pollinators, to now having learned about it in school.

Derrick Daly:

Yeah, it was fascinating, actually. I moved here to attend Southern Maine Technical College. My mom and dad retired here and I lived with them while I went back to school. I was 35 at the time and never had imagined myself living, living here for as long as I have, but time goes by so fast. But anyway, went to school, started gardening there, and that was right at the time. When I first started in by the sea, there were hardly any gardens and the owner, innkeeper at the time was Maureen McQuaid. And she was a great woman, very passionate and very empowering of an employee. Do you know what I mean? So I had all this knowledge from smtc. I planted gardens. We specifically made them low pesticide and insect friendly. And gardening became a passion in the United States. I credit Martha Stewart with it, because when she came and she made fine English gardening accessible to the average person, do you know what I mean, with her magazines, her gardens, her programs, everything and every person, gardening all of a sudden became like a passion. So many people came to the end, and that's when we started garden tours and we started showcasing the gardening we were doing there. And we had a lot of feedback, a lot of give and take. And the garden tours went into love of the environment and respecting how our land abuts Crescent Beach State Park. And then approximately five years ago, the new management of in by the Sea did a huge renovation. And part of that renovation was to make a rabbitat, which is for the endangered New England cottontail. And that is also helpful. Anytime you make one area more habitable from one species, they all benefit. And so now that whole area and the whole native gardening, using native trees, plants and shrubs in your foundation and your gardening has come full on. So we've just paralleled society, do you know what I mean? In a small way? Tours, eco tours, tours of the great pond, children's garden tours, an awareness of our surroundings.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So talk to me about the rabbitat. This, from what I understand, the issue was that there were invasive species that were taking over from what the New England cottontail would normally live, live in. And you tried to reintroduce plants that the New England cottontail would actually enjoy living in.

Derrick Daly:

There was. There's a patch of land right where our property ends and Crescent beach begins. And if you've ever taken the boardwalk from the hotel to the beach, you've actually walked right through it before. It abuts a salt marsh. That whole area, which is approximately, I would say, six acres, was completely inundated with Japanese knotweed. It's an example exotic invasive bamboo that is literally impossible to remove. We've been battling it tooth and nail for the last five years. We're sort of winning. But it has a really thick white taproot, and if you leave even the tiniest little chunk of root, it can rejuvenate itself and it pops up all over the place where you haven't seen it for years. Long story short, the Japanese knotweed was removed. Honeysuckle was Removed. Multiflora rose was removed. And bittersweet, the plants were removed. The soil was planted with 500 native trees, plants and shrubs. And that is to create a thicket or a briar where rabbits will feel comfortable coming out of the forest. Living in the briar, the endangered New England cottontail is food for everything. Owls, hawks, coyotes, foxes, you name it. He's a crucial part of the whole food web. So he's very shy, he or she. And so they love to just eat clover and grass underneath the shelter of a shrub. And so this whole area, this briar thicket area, was disappearing from our environment due to the fact that our forest had matured to a certain point. And lawns usually went right up to the forest. Well, this is an area between lawn or meadow and between the forest where shrubbery just grows wild and the rabbit feels very comfortable.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've also created a space that's very healthy for humans. If you're not spraying as much and the kids are out playing on the lawns, then they're not rolling around in pesticides. From what I understand, the pool, which is heated by solar panels, is not chlorinated, so it's cleaned with, I think, bromides.

Derrick Daly:

Yeah. A type of salt.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

A type of salt. So it seems like all of these things are working together to try to create a healthier ecosystem for really all of a sudden of life.

Derrick Daly:

Definitely. Yeah. Every department in the hotel just. They call it a common sense approach to green. And we do everything from recycling cardboard. Oh, all of our food scraps are recycled, and a company comes to pick them up. And our gardening, the weeds and the clippings, too, are all taken to its compost, and it's all composted down into this beautiful black gold. And so the scraps go out and. And then it's made into compost. And people can use that compost to fertilize their yards. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you grew up outside of Manhattan. How do you become a person that decides he's so interested in gardens and soil and little critters and big critters. How did that happen for you?

Derrick Daly:

Well, I just was living and working outside of. Living in New York City and grew up outside. Outside of New York City. Lived in the city for a while, did a variety of different jobs. But I would always read gardening magazines at night before I went to bed. And I was fascinated with gardening. Do you know what I mean? I never envisioned that I would myself be able to create a beautiful, beautiful garden with perennials, flowering shrubs, annuals, and it was just something that I was always, like, interested in, but it was just more of a hobby than a career. My parents retired here. My dad worked in Manhattan his whole life. And my mom and dad moved to Cape Elizabeth. My brother had. Was a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy. And so they started vacationing on peaks. And then when it was time for them to get out of the city, so to speak, they moved to Cape Elizabeth. They purchased a home. And they said, derek, this is your time. If you want to make a change in your life, come live with us and go to SMTC and learn about horticulture. And I didn't bat an eye. Literally, I. I was vacationing with them, went home, gave my notice, packed up a U haul, came here, went to SMTC my first semester. I took botany, and I failed the math entrance exam because it had been years since I'd done any type of fractions or decimals or anything. So, anyway, it was a great program. It was taught at the Time by Dr. Richard Churchill. He's the best. And started the whole plant and soil technology program at smtc. Went to school, loved every minute of it. Did an internship at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, which was just fascinating in itself. Went through school. Loved, loved, loved it. And a woman who was in the program, Brenda Santoro, she was the head gardener at in by the Sea at the time. And right as I graduated, it was her time to move on. And I moved in. And fast forward 15 years, and that was 15 years ago. It blows my mind to say that every year they give you a certificate at the end, and when mine comes up, and this year it will say 16. I'm just like, oh, my God. But, yeah, that's how it all happened. And then I'm just still here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's interesting that you would have something that you are passionate about, but in your mind, it's just a hobby. But once you decided, all right, you know what, I'm gonna go towards this thing that I feel so passionate about, even if it's just what I read before I go to bed at night. And then it's. It's like this whole second life for you.

Derrick Daly:

Yeah. It was almost as if the universe had a line to allow me to do this. Do you know what I mean? My mom heard about the program at smtc. They happened to move here to retire. I was just so fed up. I was a waiter at TGI Fridays in Hackensack, New Jersey. And I remember one day a customer asked me for a glass of water, and I Went in the back and I was just like, oh, I can't believe they're drinking water. And a manager pulled me aside and said, derek, you're burnt out. You've just been waiting tables for too long. You're great. We love you, but it's time for a change. And that happened. I was like, you're right. And that happened right before I came to visit. My mom and dad here in Maine flew up. They laid their whole plan on me, and I was like, this is genius. Whatever, let's do it. Do you know what I mean? So it was sort of like something in the universe was aligned to make it happen. I was fed up with my job and my life in New Jersey. Came here, loved smtc. But what the real clincher for me was how I stayed in Maine. One winter, I went to live in Jacksonville, Florida. A friend of mine, Amy Peterson, owns Peterson Event Productions, I lived there for a whole winter. It was fun. But Florida was just one gigantic highway. We went to a million different venues, did all kinds of crazy things. It was super exciting and super fun. But it wasn't until I went to Florida. Jacksonville, Florida, for a winter. And then when I was driving back, I remember crossing over from New Hampshire into Maine and taking us Route 1 just to get off the highway for a while. And it just hit me. I was like, you know what? I was meant to be here. It took me seeing the lifestyle in Florida to appreciate what I had right in front of my face the whole time. And when I returned from Florida, my parents, that was an incredibly bad winter, they said, we're moving to Florida. And I said, I'm staying here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, somehow, whatever it was, the alignments or the energies, somehow you ended up getting put in the right place. And you're actually. It sounds like you're kind of doing the right thing at the right time in a place where people are a lot more interested and open to rabitats and pollinators and monarch butterflies. So what do you think? What do you see happening next at the end by the sea? It seems like you are continuing to progress. The things that you offer people, your classes and the Bug's Life tours. And what else do you have in that mind of yours?

Derrick Daly:

Well, somewhere in the near future, I see us actually producing flowers, vegetables that will be used in the kitchen, and a beautiful garden of cut flowers that will be used for weddings, for bouquets and stuff like that, and to, you know, decorate the lobby and more towards taking the immediate the X amount of acres we have now and using Pockets all around the property to actually produce things that people use.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is it interesting to you that you are directly next to Maxwell's where people do pick your own strawberries? Is it interesting that the Inn by the Sea is right there?

Derrick Daly:

Yeah, definitely. It's a. It's a real thrill for someone. I don't know if you could imagine living in Manhattan or Washington D.C. or Miami, Florida. And then you wake up the next morning, you see the beautiful ocean in front of you, the salt marsh, but then you look to your left and you see people. Actually there's tons of people there today harvesting strawberries. So it gives a real again something real, something tangible, a hands on connection to the whole agricultural part of Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that there are more people going into soil science, gardening and getting the sort of education that you got what's now smcc? But what was smart MTC when you went through?

Derrick Daly:

Definitely. I don't know if the whole. I do more ornamental, the ornamental end of it, install perennial gardens. I maintain the property. My passion is a flowering garden. Do you know what I mean? I always say if I had to grow my own food, even though I know a lot a ton about plants, I would starve to death. I'm not a farmer, so to speak, but the thing that excites me the most is I see young people more and more and more getting into actual farming. Do you know what I mean? Purchasing old farms, rejuvenating them, growing apples, making hard cider from the apples, corn, you know what I mean? That whole thing is a really fascinating aspect of horticulture.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, you draw an interesting distinction, you know, and I guess that I have heard that some people really like flowering ornamental gardens and flowers and things that are related to ornamental gardens. And some people really, it's the food. So what is it about the ornamental gardens that really draws you again?

Derrick Daly:

I guess it's just a dream I had in my mind when I would read gardening magazines before I would go to bed every night. I would read about beautiful gardens in England, Sissinghurst, or just breathtaking gardens in England. And I would think, how could someone be so educated to know the whole timing of it? The perennial, the annual, the biennial, the flowering shrub, flowering trees. And it's almost like kind of like an artist uses paints to create a painting while you use flowers to make something beautiful, do you know what I mean? It's sort of your medium to express yourself with. And it's fascinating because you would never, even if you live for 200 years, learn every single thing and there's always new introductions to the marketplace too. And so it's something that keeps your mind always going. You're always reading more about it, always learning more about about it. The greatest thing to do is go to someone else's garden. I'll give a shout out to the Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour. It's amazing. Coming up. And so you see what other people do with their property, and it energizes you to come back and just do more with yours.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I agree with you that the Cape Elizabeth Garden tour is amazing. And I think Maine Home Design has always been very interested in promoting the Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour and other types of garden tours, because the landscape around the house can be just as important as the house itself. And it's the setting that we live in. So I think about people who visit in by the Sea and how. And how they're wherever it is that they came from. They're getting this little bit of respite from maybe a city, maybe a desert, whatever the landscape. And part of this is because of the work that you do.

Derrick Daly:

Definitely. Yeah. I think of it as one giant outdoor room. Like housekeeping works so hard. The restaurant works so hard. The front desk is so amazing. Everyone does their part. And my piece of the puzzle is providing an outdoor setting where you'll be, you know, a little bit wowed. Every gardener has pride, and they want. When you open the two back doors and you overlook the property, you want someone to be like, whoa. And, you know, we do get that reaction sometimes, but that motivates you to work hard. And just my piece of the puzzle is the outdoor part of in by the is like one giant room, so to speak, where guests, children, dogs, anyone can enjoy themselves. And to give you something beautiful to look at and something to experience.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you have any tips for people other than go visit in Weather Sea, which I will encourage everybody to do because they all want to see your beautiful work. But do you have any tips for people who are trying to make their own gardens healthy for pollinators, or maybe do other things that are a little bit more eco friendly?

Derrick Daly:

Yeah, definitely. My greatest tip to gardeners is as opposed to using chemical fertilizers like your miracle grows before you even plant. Use compost. We buy our compost from Jordan's and Cape Elizabeth, and it's made of lobster shells, cow manure, oak leaves, branches, leaf clippings, all things deemed unusable by society. And food scraps, they break down into what I call black gold, because it really is. You take the extra step. You lay out your garden, you incorporate your compost, you plant in that compost and in subsequent years you top dress with compost. So what I'm saying is compost is great and that's my tip. Definitely check out compost and use compost in all your gardens.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm a huge fan of compost. We actually did we did half a show on compost not too long ago and we love compost here. So I'm totally with you. You rock on compost. And when I when I start my garden next year, I think I will, I will be following that tip, doing some composting. I appreciate the time that you're taking. I know it's a busy season for you and to all the work that you're doing within the gardens and the education that you're doing. We've been speaking with the head gardener at in by the Sea, Derek Daly, who is an SMCC graduate of the Plant and Soil Technology School and also has been an intern at Harvest Arnold Arboretum and For the past 15 years we've been lucky to have him here in Maine at In by the Sea. I encourage people to go to in by the Sea, maybe have a garden tour with you. If you have a small child or a large child, do the Bug's Life tour. But really get to know what types of things in by the Sea is doing. And you can also read about the in by the Sea in an upcoming issue of Maine Magazine. Thanks so much for coming in today and talking with me today.

Derrick Daly:

Yeah, definitely. It was great. Thank you very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been listening to Love Maine Radio Show Number 258, Hospitality for All creatures Great and small. Our guests have included Ronnie Q. And Derek Daly. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on itunes. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belleck. I hope that you have enjoyed our Hospitality for all creatures Great and Small show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

Rauni Kew:

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