Maine Lands #191

Chris Franklin:

We need to make sure that people are going to love these places and take care of them. And that starts with our children, and it starts with kids in school. So we have very active education programs really trying to make sure that we build an understanding of the natural world. And out of that we hope there comes sense of appreciation for the natural world. And out of that sort of comes a responsibility or an interest in helping to care for the natural world as

Rodney Eason:

a cultural attraction in Maine, along with all the other cultural attractions that we make sure that people are enjoying what they see and that they want to come back. Not only do they want to come back, but when they get back to Brooklyn or they get back to Manayunk and Philadelphia, they tell their friends, oh, you're going to Maine. They make sure you go by and check out this garden in Booth Bay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine Radio show number 191, Maine lands, airing for the first time on Sunday, May 10, 2015. Whether we are traversing our native soil or sinking our fingers into it, we Mainers are in love with the land. Today we speak with Chris Franklin, Executive Director of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, and Rodney Eason, Director of Horticulture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Each of these individuals brings a unique perspective on what the Earth has to offer and what we in turn have to offer the Earth. Thank you for joining us. It's my great pleasure to have in the studio today with me, Chris Franklin. Chris Franklin has been the Executive Director of the Cape Elizabeth land Trust since 2003. He oversees all aspects of the organization, including marketing, development, land stewardship, and land acquisition. He lives in Cumberland with his wife Julie and their three children. Thanks so much for coming in today.

Chris Franklin:

Thanks. It's good to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So land trust. This is something that's become increasingly important here in Maine. We have to obviously create access for people and maintain the lands that we so enjoy. Why did you get into doing this line of work?

Chris Franklin:

I was a geography major and sort of grew up fishing and hiking and doing those types of things and studying environmental conservation and as a discipline in college and then working in San Francisco when I came back, the idea that we could do something locally that would have some lasting impression, sort of that think globally, act locally. I had a one year old at the time. It was a great match. And it's really grown into something that's just beyond my greatest dreams in terms of what we've been able to achieve, but also in terms of the meaning the work has for me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You originally were from Massachusetts?

Chris Franklin:

Yep.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And did you do a lot of this fishing and outdoor activities in Massachusetts?

Chris Franklin:

Well, it's interesting. So I grew up in Lincoln, Massachusetts, which is really at the forefront of local land conservation. So back in the 60s, they were buying local land and developing portions of it, but making sure they saved the most important parts. Almost 60% of the town is conservation land. And that was just the town I grew up in. I just took it for granted I didn't know anything different. But as I traveled more and as I got older, I really had developed a much stronger appreciation for what they had done. And now that I've learned how they did it, they were really ahead of their time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why would you decide to be a geography major? What was it about that that somehow called to you?

Chris Franklin:

So it's really about the distribution of plants and people and cultures and different habitats. And that really, to me, one of the most intriguing fields in that where I people live, where they do, how they've evolved, how different species interact. And so not only the geology, but the ecology and the biology and all those earth sciences where they intersect with the human experience is geography.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And somehow, though, in your childhood, you became interested enough in all of these disparate things that came into one science that you decided to pursue it as a major.

Chris Franklin:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, so something in the art sciences wasn't a big surprise to a lot of people. And in fact, you know, when I sort of had. They had a program within the school of geography, which was environmental conservation. And when I realized that could be my major and the light went on and it really. Things started to click and that's when, you know, sort of set me on my path.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

After you graduated from college, you actually went all the way across the country and then a little further, you went to San Francisco, you went to Alaska. Why did you do that?

Chris Franklin:

My mom had a little saying taped to her fridge that said, all you can give a child are roots and wings. And they really encouraged us to spread those wings and to travel as much as we could and to explore different places. And I certainly hope my kids will do the same. That growing up in New England was great. Most of my friends stayed in New England. A lot of them are still there. I'm back. But the chance to go somewhere else. I lived in Taos for a year, lived in San Francisco for eight years. Just meeting people with different life experience. That's what college was about. And sort of took that for another 10 or 15 years. Beyond that, I don't know. That change, that getting out of your comfort zone really can teach you a lot of. And it's good to bring those lessons home with you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So now you call Maine Home, of course.

Chris Franklin:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what was it that brought you back?

Chris Franklin:

It's partially the geography. You know, it's that sense of place, it's something that's familiar. But you know, Portland in particular, that living right outside of Portland, we have the ocean, we have the north woods. I do canoe trips and a fair amount of fly fishing. But also to have a really dynamic, small enough city that you don't have to deal with parking or traffic. When we moved here, you know, the parking garages were 50 cents an hour. And that was a really nice change from San Francisco.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I remember that seems like a while ago that that was the case, but. But you're right. When you go to a big city, parking is so much more expensive. And it seems like Portland is a very livable place still.

Chris Franklin:

Right. You know, and I think that's part of it being a healthy place to live is that it really enables you to not have to deal with a lot of the hassles. When I go back around the areas where I grew up, the stress level seems higher.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You had a one year old when you started this job and you now have an 8 year old and 10.

Chris Franklin:

And he's just about to turn 13.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Just about to turn 13. So your children have been evolving as your career has been evolving. How has that looked in your family life?

Chris Franklin:

Well, I think, you know, part of what we look at at the land trust is really not only that we're in a really important time where we have to do the acquisition now, but we need to make sure that people are going to Love these places and take care of them. And you know, that starts with our children and it starts with kids in school. So we have very active education programs really trying to make sure that we build an understanding of the natural world. And out of that we hope they're comes a sense of appreciation for the natural world. And out of that sort of comes a responsibility or an interest in helping to care for the natural world. And so for me, if I can't do that at home, it's difficult. But they teach me a lot too. It's really great to see things from their eyes, things that I've just sort of given into that are just the way things are, that they really challenge. Why does global warming have to be does something that we can't just address full on and change our thinking about? Because for them it's just ridiculous. And it is ridiculous. But we're so in the midst of it, it's hard for us to see.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's a good point. I'm just thinking about my own children and the questions that they raise about things that I sort of long ago stopped questioning because it just seemed as if it is the way it is and we just need to accept it. But that really isn't true. There are many things that can be changed. You just need to start examining them more closely and put some work behind it. So this is something that you have been doing with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, really for almost 12 years? Yep. It must have been an interesting change over time.

Chris Franklin:

Yeah. So, you know, not only has the organ, you know, when I came to the organization, a lot of the founders were still there, a lot of people who essentially ran it as an all volunteer organization. So I became essentially the first full time paid executive director for the trust. So there was a transition of those people feeling like after a few years of the organization feeling in good hands and sort of being able to step back a little bit, we got a fresh new slate of board members. And we're now getting to the point where after nine years they needed at least take one year off the board before coming back. And so we're sort of going through another change. But that's, you know, I think as hard as it is to lose those people who bring so much time and talent to the organization to keep it fresh, to keep it nimble, I think you need to bring in new people. But it's really hard because that's the lifeblood of the organization, that we're a staff of two and there's no way we could do a Fraction of the work that gets done if it weren't for our volunteers and our board members. It's a really phenomenal partnership. And I think a lot of Maine is greatly, greatly impacted by its nonprofits. And it's really important to understand the cumulative impact of that. Not just the impact on the individual organizations, but if you look at land trusts throughout the state that really started to do local land preservation, now 30 years later, these organizations are the largest source of new conservation lands in the state. In fact, they're doing the vast majority of land protection in the state. And even though they were formed just to do their own little local bit, the cumulative impact is over a million acres of conservation land in Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It does seem that this has been a touchy subject, especially shoreline frontage and access to things like beaches. I think it may be more so in other parts of the country, though. It seems as though in Maine in general, we still have access to places that many other. Many other locales don't.

Chris Franklin:

Yeah, I mean, Maine, and this is part of the reason that per capita New England has a lot more land trusts than most of the rest of the country, is that being settled under colonial law came with it a lot of rights of access. So that in New England in particular, that you're allowed to walk on somebody's property unless they post it against trespassing. And that's just been the rule of the road or the culture. And if you go out west, if you go to a lot of places, because it's exactly the opposite, that you're not allowed on the property unless you're explicitly given access, Unless you get to somewhere like Hawaii where the entire oceanfront is considered a public domain. But that tradition of private ownership is both good and bad in terms of our access to resources. States like Nevada, 80% of the land is public land. It's federally owned or state owned. States like New England, states like Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire, or maybe in the teens. So we really rely upon private landowners for access a lot more. Even though the great ponds ponds greater than 10 acres, the waterways and the oceanfront are given limited public rights of access, we really do rely upon private landowners a lot more than most areas. And that's why the land trust has been such a great model here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It seems as though there has to be a respect on the part of the people who use the land. I've walked on a lot of the coast and actually in from the coast, in the woodlands and around people's properties, and you could see how it easily could Become abused people. If somebody were to litter or if somebody were to be loud, somebody were to be obnoxious, maybe overuse by bikes or even just people walking too much on plant routes, it seems to me that there has to be a mutual respect that takes place.

Chris Franklin:

Absolutely. I mean, that idea that not taking it for granted, regardless of who owns it, even if it's a state park, but especially if it's a privately owned parcel with that landowner, is encouraging or just allowing access to your property. And they may have very simple rules, no fires, no motorized vehicles or something, but when people ignore those, they're jeopardizing access. And I think it's a challenge, but I think it's sort of akin to a lot of other aspects of our life that you can park and take up two spots. You can do all sorts of things that are going to make people upset, and if you do them enough, there's going to be some repercussion.

Rodney Eason:

Love.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

one of the pieces that I like to write for Old Port is called On Foot. And we explore different areas on foot. That's why it's called that, obviously. One of the earliest pieces we did was actually a walk from in Cape Elizabeth that walked near Crescent beach and near the Sprague property and then back again. And what was interesting about that is you got woods, you got wetlands, sort of fields, you got forest. And it was a collaboration. People, a lot of people made that, that path possible. You have other things that you also other paths that are collaborative. Can you tell me about some of your favorites?

Chris Franklin:

So I've been doing for a number of years now this crosstown walk that goes from the Portland Head Lighthouse to Crescent beach. And it's a seven and a half mile walk across town. And it's really interesting part because its origins were back in the 70s, before there was any local conservation land. They had this idea of a trail connecting the two. And now that it's come to fruition, it is this mix of land that was federally owned, bought by the town, land that the town got from subdivisions, lands that the land trust worked with owners to put conservation easements on, lands that the land trust purchased. Just really all the different ways that you can do. Local land preservation are represented there as are all the different habitats. You have tidal saltwater marsh, you have old growth forest, you have open fields, you have aspen and birch and spruce and fir. You really have all the different types as well as starting in the bay and ending on the ocean. So it's amazing that in a town like Cape Elizabeth, 9,000 acres, 15 square miles, that there's still such a diversity of habitat, places to go.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the crosstown walk starts at the lighthouse.

Chris Franklin:

Yep.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it ends on at Kettle Cove. At Kettle Cove. And so people could park at one end and then. But that's a long. I mean if you were going to do that whole walk, if it's seven miles, is it seven miles total or is it seven and a half?

Chris Franklin:

So what we do. So I lead a trip twice a year through Cape Elizabeth Community Services. You don't have to be a resident to do it, but we meet at the lighthouse at 8. We stop at our office which is halfway around 10:30. We're to Kett by noon. We set up a big picnic lunch. We feed you and shuttle you back to the fort by one. So it's really a half day thing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So people who don't want to do a full 15 miles out and back.

Chris Franklin:

Oh, nobody does the round trip.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

They can do that crosstown piece. That makes sense. So what other areas do people enjoy in Cape Elizabeth?

Chris Franklin:

So I think Great Pond is one of those places that I love to go just because in all different seasons it changes every day. It has active beaver dams, so it's a spring fed, 4 foot deep, 125 acre pond. So it freezes up quickly in the winter. And so you get some great skating there in the winter, great cross country skiing. People go ice fishing. But town built a canoe rack there and you can get your canoe in there pretty quickly. But to have something that remote because there aren't any houses along the shores, it somehow remain this isolated pond. And so it's just sort of one of these hidden places. That's great. Robinson woods, the two properties we own over there are just phenomenal. Almost 60 of the 80 acres are considered primary forest at Robinson Woods. One, the first one we bought. And for a town that was nearly clear cut 100 years ago when it was all agricultural, the idea that you still have some 200 and 300 year old trees that close to Portland and a family that owned a paper company is pretty amazing. But it's just one of those places where everything else goes away when you're there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how Big are the, how long are the walks? If one were to go to Great Pond or one were to go to

Chris Franklin:

Robinson Woods, Great Pond is probably a mile from end to end and it's sort of a, you know, a to B kind of walk. It's not a loop. So you can just sort of go as far as you want and turn around. Robinson woods has about a mile and a quarter outer loop trail. And then Robinson Woods 2 has another sort of mile, mile and a half trail that cuts from the Shore Road all the way over to Route 77 near the center of town. But there's some smaller loops you can do in there and you know, but if you go for an hour or two, if you go, if you want to do a two hour walk, there's plenty of stuff there for you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So if you're going to Robinson woods, you could park near Shore Road, it sounds like. And if you're going to Great Pond, where would you park then?

Chris Franklin:

So Fenway Road, which is off Fowler or down at the Kettle Cove Dairy, which is a little challenging in the summer because it's popular. But there's. Yeah. And so you can get on our website and look at maps or the town has some maps, but pretty easy to get to.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It sounds like you are actively doing educational events for people at least. At least this walk that you described earlier.

Chris Franklin:

So we have a fourth grade program in the schools for kids and we also have adult programs. We did Nala walk, we do spring wildflower walks, vernal pool walks, winter shorebirds, migrating birds. So probably do 20 or so programs a year. But the school ones are great just because the fourth grade, we've been doing that for probably 10 years. And the fourth graders are learning about the water cycle and the nutrient cycle and animal adaptation and camouflage and all that great stuff in classroom. So we said, hey, we got this property just down the road that they can go out and they can see all that. And so they do two hours in the fall, two hours an hour in the winter and two hours again in the spring so that they can see those cycles happening. And we give them a journal and they can keep their notes and do their drawings. It's just been great for the kids because they just really light up when they're out there and sort of see how things work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Obviously, this type of access to land requires some funding and you've raised more than $5 million, I believe, to support local land conservation. That's an interesting aspect of your job. I wonder if you knew that this was something that you were going to be so actively involved in when you were going through as a geography major.

Chris Franklin:

I think so. I mean, I think any nonprofit needs to have a supportive community and that comes in many way. I think you could argue that the cost of what we're doing would be two or three times what it's been if we didn't have so much volunteer, if we needed to staff every position to do all the work that we do. And we're fortunate they're not able to do that. So we get support in so many different ways. We get sponsorship for our events, we get foundation grants for our acquisitions. We have family foundations and individuals who donate to us. We have currently about 50 families who are part of our conservation leadership circle who are donating $1,000 or more to the organization in a given year. But those big numbers really come when we do the land acquisitions. We've had some fairly substantial properties donated to us or sold to us, what they call a bargain sale below their market value. So people are able to give in a lot of different ways. Some people have time, some people have money, some people have property, some people expertise and services. So you really need to cobble together everything you need from where you can get it. And so even though that's a big number, we're a pretty lean organization in terms of how we operate. But there is no more important time to be doing this land conservation work. When we were formed in 1985, there were no conservation lands, local conservation lands in Cape Elizabeth and that was fairly common throughout the state. And I would argue that it's going to be a 50 year window where, you know, 20, 35 or so that our work, it's going to be hard for us to really have priority lands out there that we're still chasing just because we're such a small town. And so if we're in the midst of this 50 year window and the town's about to celebrate its 250th anniversary, go out another 250 years. We have a 500 year span of the town's history. There's going to be a 50 year window right in the middle where all the local land conservation happened. And we're right in the midst of that and it's a really exciting time. So I think that helps us in terms of getting people, giving people the urgency and the importance of what we're doing now because we're not going to have these challenges in the future and people are going to be really, really glad we did this work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have A big fundraiser in the summer that involves art.

Chris Franklin:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Can you tell me about that?

Chris Franklin:

So that's awesome. So this came, you know, very organically. Somebody walked in our door. Mary Ann Cary walked in our door, who's a great pastel artist, and wanted to see if we were interested in doing one of these events. And so we partnered with Rodney Voisin, who's a local resident, and he hosted us for the first two years at his house. And we got mostly local paint. I think we had 17 painters the first year that we did this, and we auctioned them off and support the land trust. And we were very careful from the beginning to give at least 50% of the sale price to the artists. And they obviously welcome to donate more if they want to. But now I think this is our eighth year coming up. We have close to 70 applicants for 30 positions. The average sale price at the auction last year was above $2,000. We had our first painting sell for more than $5,000. So the caliber of the artist, it's really sort of, I think, just by reputation, become one of the better plein air auctions in the state. And we couldn't be happier just because we have a great committee that works on it. And a lot of artists really like it and have been supportive of the event. And it's a real win win because. Because when you do special events, they're very time intensive. But to do an event like this, that really does tie into our mission in terms of celebrating those natural places and seeing these incredible artists interpret the landscapes that we walk around in every day. It's wonderful. It's really great to see that. And, you know, it's good for us in terms of exposing people to our mission and getting support for our mission. So it's just been a great, great event.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that Maine Magazine, Maine Home Design, that we've been supporters of the art auction for quite a while. And personally, in my household, I actually have some of the art on our walls, and one of them that is a special favorite was done by an artist of the Shore Road path, which is a place that I have run often. And so it really. It has a very special meaning for me. And I agree with you that to have things interpreted by artists and then to be able to bring that home and put it on your wall is special.

Chris Franklin:

I want to do a collection of just the Portland headlight, because every year we have one or two artists paint there, and they are, you know, from the drippy oils where it looks like it's melting into the ocean to, you know, hyper realism. So we've really run the gamut and it's just, it's neat to see, to have that, to be able to facilitate.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Chris, what's the date this year for your art auction?

Chris Franklin:

July 12th.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay, so July 12th is the date for the art auction. And how do people find out about

Chris Franklin:

the Cape Elizabeth land trust@capelandtrust.org is probably the best that has our maps, it has our events. You can sign up for an electronic newsletter that comes once a month, lets you know what the upcoming walks and talks are. Little sort of stories from the field. So trying to. We're going to have another. We're having another photo contest this summer. Every couple years we do a photo contest. It's amazing as well, just to see how many talented photographers there are out there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's been a great pleasure to speak with you. We've been talking with Chris Franklin, who is the executive director of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. I'm hoping to make it to the art auction again this year. I will definitely make it out to some of these trails that I have not yet walked or run on. So thank you for the work that you do and for being here. Thanks.

Chris Franklin:

It's been great being here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it is a much smaller world than we often realize, and I know this, in fact, through social media, because for quite a while, I have followed an individual on Instagram who is the Director of horticulture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. However, we had never met, and I had never thought about actually meeting him until we came up with this idea for a show and we said, we need to get Rodney Eason in here. So that's indeed what we have done. Today I'm speaking with Rodney Eason, who is the Director of horticulture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. He lives in East Booth Bay with his wife, Carrie, and their four children, including a set of twins.

Rodney Eason:

That's right. That's right. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, thanks for coming in and thanks for moving to Maine, because you're actually not from here. You were born in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Rodney Eason:

That's right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I'm sure I did not pronounce that with the correct Southern accent.

Rodney Eason:

So, yeah, when you say North Carolina sort of turns into an F. So people say North Carolina a lot. And Raleigh can be pronounced a lot of different ways. But I'm sure you're. Your listeners are going, where did you find this guy from with this accent? But it's great being here. And there are many more Southerners in Maine than one might imagine once you start. And we seem to meet each other, which is great.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's always funny for me because John McCain is our audio producer, and he spent quite a lot of time in Hawaii, but he also has connections all over the world. And we will have people come in here and they will also have lived in Hawaii or they'll have a connection with Germany or. I mean, I think think Maine does kind of collect people with interesting backgrounds.

Rodney Eason:

It does. I think a lot of it has to do with just the terrain of Maine and the sort of unspoiled, Waldenesque nature of Maine draws a lot of people, especially folks from the east coast, because it's that last piece of sort of unpreserved wilderness that one might imagine. And yet it's with. You can hop on 95 and get here. And so it does draw a lot of people to come and see the coastline. And of course, people want to see lobsters. And now they can see a botanical garden, which is. When I heard that there was a botanical garden in Maine, I thought, well, you can grow blueberries and spruce trees, so what else can you do? And after digging in further, there surely is A whole lot you can grow. And being in the gardens in the summer just shows us how many people come to our state. And hopefully more people will decide that it is a great place to live and it is a great place to retire or even move your family here like we did. We love it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I have spent time at the Botanical Gardens, actually, I think it was several years ago. There was an event that we went to, and I was impressed not just by the plants, but also by the layout, by the sculptures, by the buildings. I mean, it really has this very beautiful flow to it. When you're walking around. You've been working on a 20 year plan for the Botanical gardens. Tell me what you've done so far and what you hope to be doing.

Rodney Eason:

Sure. So with the gardens themselves, what you have seen thus far are the efforts of really about a 10 year effort. So the gardens have only been open for eight years. So we are one of the youngest botanical gardens in the United States. And I think that's what people are drawn to when they come to our gardens, is that they're extremely different than most other public gardens. A lot of other public gardens in the United States are either sort of replications of a French garden or an Italianate garden, which were more scaled for a king or an emperor or a ruler. And our gardens have none of that. That's more of a people's garden. And it's a place to meander, especially in the Garden of the Five Senses, the Lerner family garden of the Five Senses. It's a place where people can explore. We actually have an area where there's a reflexology labyrinth where we ask folks to please take your shoes off and walk on the stones and feel this. So it's a much different experience than I've ever encountered encountered in a public garden. And I think as we go forward, one of the biggest things that we've sort of talked about as a collective group, as an institutional body, is that as we go forward in this master plan, is that we don't screw up. Because Maine and the Maine coastline, especially in that Booth Bay Harbor Peninsula is gorgeous on its own. Right. And so that itself can stand alone. But then when we sort of insert this botanical garden, it needs to be beautiful, it needs to be awe inspiring. There was something that we talked about when I was at Longwood Gardens that someone said, as any garden goes forward, what you would love to see is like open doors in the parking lot where people get there and they forget to take their keys out and they forget to close their doors. Just because they're so awestruck. And I'm hoping that I'll see that at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in the future, that there will be all these open doors in the parking lots and everybody will leave their keys just because they're so excited to come in and see what we're doing there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're also a very kid friendly location. When I was there at this event, and I think it's like this all the time, there were children there with their parents. They were running forward on the paths. I think your plan is to maybe have some bicycles, if you don't already, for the garden. And that's a bit of a. When I think of botanical gardens, I do think of these sort of majestic places where you do not touch. But you're very specifically asking people to touch and engage and bring your kids and be part of this.

Rodney Eason:

Absolutely. I mean, we don't blatantly go out and say it, but we are proselytizing to the next generation of horticulturalists and the next generation of nature lovers. And I think the folks who live here and also the folks who vacation here with their, with their children, they want to experience nature, whether they're. I mean, I've met couples with young children from Bronx or the Brooklyn. And they need to get out, they need to escape, they need to decompress, they need to not hear airplanes flying over their heads all day and the honk of taxi cabs. And so they get that. And when they come to the gardens, I see them relax, I see them sun, like the sun hits their face because they're not in the concrete jungle and the tunnels of the skyscrapers and their kids can explore. And I think that's important not only for folks who visit, but for kids who grow up in Maine. Because you hear, I mean, our kids tell us this all the time. They love Pennsylvania, but they love Maine. They love being able to explore. They love being able to get out and get dirty in nature. And I think for us as a botanical garden, if we were to put up a sort of do not pass this line sort of thing, as a typical museum, one might expect it would destroy the whole premise of being in Maine. And so we have to make sure that as a cultural attraction in Maine, along with all the other cultural attractions, that we make sure that people are enjoying what they see and that they want to come back. Not only do they want to come back, but when they get back to Brooklyn or they get back to Manayunk in Philadelphia, they tell their friends, oh, you're Going to Maine. Make sure you go by and check out this garden in Boothbay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Booth Bay is an interesting place because it has this rich heritage of seagoing people and boats and. And going out to Monhegan. But it also has the Bigelow Labs. My son was up there two summers ago. I wrote an article about them for Maine Magazine. And they actually have an affiliation with the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. I believe that you have summer interns that hang out with their summer interns and make that connection. And I think these types of connections are happening all over the place in Boothbay.

Rodney Eason:

That's right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why is that? Why is there this interesting energy, the synergy of different sorts of people being brought together in Booth Bay?

Rodney Eason:

I think you're hitting on a great point. And the locals, folks who have grown up in Booth Bay, and I've sort of been told that means you either came over on a ship or you have native roots there. And if you didn't, then they tend to call everybody people from away. And it's funny to hear that. And then just sort of going around the. The entire peninsula, we see that we go from a population from Route 1 south to about in January, we probably have about 6,000 residents. And then in August, we go up to about 60 to 70,000 residents. So we need to stay close during the winter. And with nonprofits and other cultural attractions, it's really this. All boats float with the rising tide. So the more that we share information, the more that we sort of promote the next generation and the more that we sort of. That we talk between ourselves. For example, I did a garden design for Bigelow for one of their courtyards around their new building. And it's just. I mean, here's this gorgeous one of a kind building, and I'm sure folks may sort of be taken aback when they go up the Damariscotta river because it's. It's a beautiful modern building. And there seems to be, if it doesn't have cedar shingles on it, that doesn't fit in Maine. And yet I'm. I'm a modernist as well. And so I really enjoy having that taste, that sort of taste of modernism on the Maine coast. But to get back to your point, why make enemies in such a small area, in such a small state when we can all work together to sort of promote what we're all trying to strive for? And that's. I see it as happiness. We're all searching for happiness in life, and it just depends on what people are looking for, whether it's learning about the resources that Bigelow is doing around the world in the oceans, or about the plant collections we have at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, or all the trails that the Land Trust has on the Booth Bay Peninsula. It's just a wonderful, wonderful place to explore and we have to work together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I also spent time at the Windjammer Days and got to meet some people who I'm sure their families have been here for at least a couple hundred years anyway, and they were very warm and welcoming and, you know, thank you for coming to our town. And they were so proud of what Booth Bay, East, Booth Bay, all of the surrounding towns have been and what they are becoming. So I think that's also a part of it is even though you may be from away, if you're kind of brought into the fold and welcomed, that feels good.

Rodney Eason:

Yeah. And I think that's where it reminds me a bit of what the south was. And there are vestiges of the south where there really are no enemies from a. From a meet you on the street sort of thing. And people know who you are. I mean, if you're. If you're new in town. The word sort of got out. I remember when we were looking for a house when we were first moving in, my wife stopped by the bank to set up a checking account, and a little kid walked up to her and said, you must be Zoe's mom. And she was taken aback. And the kid said, yeah, Our teacher told us that a new girl's moving in from the Philippines area. It's just a. It's really a fun sort of throwback experience.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have interesting connections in different places. You have an older brother who was born in Morocco. You met your wife Carrie during a college internship at Walt Disney World. You spent time in Pennsylvania. You were the garden curator at the Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, North Carolina. You mentioned the Longwood Gardens, and I guess this was University of Delaware.

Rodney Eason:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

See, you've been all over the place, and yet you've found this place to put down your roots. Why,

Rodney Eason:

I think about this from time to time. I was counting this morning that Carrie and I have been married for 17 years and we've moved nine times. And for some people, that would be. That would. I think it would stress some people out. But Carrie and I tend to have that free spirit, and I think that's why we were drawn to one another. I never had left home, really. I spent most of my time in North Carolina, right around the Raleigh area. And then in college, heading down To Florida was sort of this first experience of leaving home. And it's funny, during orientation, Walt Disney World makes all their. At that time, made all their interns go through a two day customer service training protocol. And during one of the training sessions, Mickey Mouse actually walked in and there was a role playing and he grabbed Carrie's hand and then reached over and grabbed my hand. And then that was. Was the first we had really noticed each other out of the group. So we love to say that Mickey Mouse actually introduced us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We're joined by Mickey. I mean, what better story is there than that, really?

Rodney Eason:

Yep. And then last, last winter, to celebrate, we had met 20 years ago, we took the whole family down to Disney World for a week. And it was, it was a fun time. And the kids loved hearing all of our stories about, you remember weeding there, you remember planting that, and so it was good. And in terms of moving, I'm from the south and Carrie's from Pennsylvania. And so we've sort of tried living in each other's home states. And we enjoyed living in North Carolina and we enjoyed living in Pennsylvania, but we decided, let's live somewhere else. Let's live somewhere we enjoy visiting. And we had vacation in Maine half dozen times. We have good friends up actually on Town Hill on Mount Desert Island. And we thought, let's live in Maine. It'd be a great place to live and raise our kids. So here we are. We're loving it. We've been here two and a half years, which is the second longest we've ever lived in any one place. So another year and a half and we'll break the record.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, and that is the interesting thing about knowing you through Instagram is sort of seeing your eagerness to do the next thing you know, spring is here. What are we doing next? And seeing like, how much you want to get your fingers into the soil. I think it's interesting. I'm not really a plant person, so if I were to go to Walt Disney World, it would all be kind of background for me. The gardens are beautiful, but their background. When I started doing more with photography, that was when I really started to notice plants and how unique they were even amongst a species. The colors, the shapes. And it's truly amazing what can be produced out of a seed.

Rodney Eason:

Right. And I love the analogy that plants, horticultural and gardening in itself could be called the slowest of the performing arts. And that from seed to germination to the plant and the flowering, everything takes on a different season. And I love looking back over I'll take photographs now, so I'll go out and photograph and document the garden. And then in June and then late summer and then into the fall with the beautiful fall color that we have. And it's amazing to see in Maine from June until, say, August, how much the garden grows, how much it flowers, and how the light changes and shows a lot of different aspects of the colors. Our colors are so rich up here, and I think it has to do with the longer days and the different sun angles. And I think one of the things that we're exploring this year at the gardens is we're working. We have a programmatic theme each summer. And this year our programmatic theme is myth, magic and medicine of plants. And so I was actually doing some research last night on one plant in particular we have coming in called a fish pepper, which is a variegated. The plant's variegated and the actual peppers are variegated and they're hot. And the origins of the plant came from early African American cooks who needed something spicy for fish dishes without throwing off the color. And so they could cut up the white peppers and add the to the fish dishes or some sort of cream based sauce and make it spicy. You're not expecting spice in that. And then I started thinking, well, I wonder if you could add that to fish chowder and sort of throw people off. You know, they're expecting something, the traditional New England fish chowder and put some, some of that in, some, some of the fish pepper in it and spice things up. So it's, it's fun. I mean, I could go on and on about all the little Instagram intricacies of plants and which are my favorite plants and which plants aren't my favorite. And it's just. And as a group, when we get together, I know my wife says, and when I'm around my plant friends, she's like, I'm gonna leave. All of the wives are gonna go over here. It's kind of like when guys are watching football and my wife's like, you guys talk your plants and we're gonna go over here and talk about more important things in the world.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, do tell me about some of your favorite plants, because I find this very interesting.

Rodney Eason:

Yeah, well, I think it's. I have to start with hydrangeas. I mean, you're hard pressed to find people who don't like hydrangeas. And to the point they're almost over planted in the landscape. But I think there's a lot of different when you start looking at the different types, like, there's the mophead, which is the biggest round, sort of pom pom type flowers. And then there are lace caps, which the flowers in the center are sterile, and they have the pink and the blue sort of dots. And then only the flowers on the outside are fertile, where they have both male and female parts, and they sort of ring around it like Saturn's rings around the planet. And then you have newer introductions which are coming out of the south, and different mountain type species. And then there are new species coming over from Asia, and plant breeders are sort of like the mad scientists, and they're coming up with new hydrangeas. We actually have a little fun hydrangea cross that we're dreaming of doing in the future at Coastal Maine Botanic Garden. There's a sort of off genus. There's a sort of like a perennial hydrangea, but it's not in the hydrangea family and it's small, and we'd love to breed it with one of the big mopheads and have like a little bedding plant with giant blue flowers on it and just blow people away. So that's one. Magnolias are the other. And again, that's from the southern magnolias. I mean, southern magnolias seeded around all over my house in our yard growing up. But there are a lot of deciduous magnolia that you can grow up here in Maine. And believe me, I've tried growing southern magnolias up here, and they don't like our winters at all. So that's one. And then I think moving over into the world of perennial plants, it'd be hard for me to choose because my brain's sort of spinning around right now thinking, okay, what's the plan of the moment sort of thing. There's a plant with an unfortunate name called sneezeweed. And the reason it's called sneeze weed is, I guess in earlier times when we didn't have modern medicine, you could actually grind up the flowers and insert them up into your nose. And the thought was that it was not. It would sort of expunge all the maladies that was causing you a headache or a stuffy nose. And that's why they call it sneeze weed, because that's the reaction. But the beauty of the plant, it has an ugly name, but the beauty of the plant is it has these discs flowers that are either yellow or orange. And there are some bicolors, and there's a great cultivar we have at the gardens called Mardi Gras. And it is sort of like orange and red striped and people love and we get so many questions about that plant.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you mentioned your theme this year, myth, Magic and medicine, which I find intriguing for lots of different reasons. You also have you're doing a collaboration with Angela Adams and you're doing a George Sherwood exhibition and you're planning a winter light show. Yes. So you're really kind of trying to do new and interesting things with your gardens.

Rodney Eason:

Absolutely. We want to. As part of going through the master plan, we also looked at a cultural analysis of where we worked with a firm from Canada and New York, Lord Cultural Resources, and they were able to see there are 1.3 million people roughly in the state of Maine and we get about 34 million tourists coming through each year and down to the level of 800,000 people go on Route 1 past the booth Bay peninsula each summer. So we were trying to figure out, okay, how do we grow our shoulder season, how do we get more folks in? Because we get a little over a hundred thousand guests a year and the majority of those guests come in June, July and August. So we were looking at how can we sort of get more folks within that time period but also grow where we are now. So by doing a partnership with George Sherwood, that's, that's an existing relationship we had had. We have this beautiful wind orchid in the gardens that spins. It's a kinetic sculpture and Georgia is out of Ipswich, Massachusetts. So it's great for us to work with a New England artist who does fine work. We can't afford nor should we go after Like a Chihuly exhibit. Other gardens do that and big locations. But I think having someone like George Sherwood, whose work is gorgeous and it moves, is a beautiful draw to have at the gardens. And then speaking about Maine being just a small state, I'm always looking, whether it be online or magazines or books, and I stumbled across these rugs and I went, those are the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. They're like three dimensional rugs based on the nature of Maine. So I emailed and sure enough, Angela's assistant wrote back and said, we'd love to talk with you. And then it has gone into us working directly with Angela. And Angela is one of the kindest souls you'll ever meet and just a beautiful artist. And she and her husband Sherwood do great work. So we're actually going to have two rugs, one a floral rug. The one rug carpet is inspired by sort of a montage of some of her existing work. And that's going to be primarily with flowers. And then we're off in the woodland. Angela's drawn now to mosses and lichens and ferns. We're going to do a living carpet on site. So we're going to go off and we've got areas where we can safely harvest some existing mosses and lichens. And then Angela is going to come out and design on site. And so we're going to do an installation right there on site this spring. We'll document it and everything. So that's going to be huge and fun and we're both really excited about that. And then on top of that, starting this winter, we'll have our first holiday light show. And actually I was outside in the cold all day yesterday afternoon looking at trees and marking the trees and thinking, alright, how many lights will it take to go up this tree and how many what sort of display should we have floating in the water over here? And we're getting all that in because, believe it or not, you need to get your orders in now for holiday lights before all the big box stores place their orders. So we're doing that now and it will be all LED lights because we don't have enough electricity and it's just better for the environment to use less electricity with LEDs and they last longer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I can tell you after having this conversation that I'm very eager to go back up and see what I've been missing in the last year. Since I haven't been there since then.

Rodney Eason:

Definitely give you a personal tour.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That sounds great. I Encourage people who are listening, who are interested to learn more about the Botanical Gardens. Rodney, what is your website site?

Rodney Eason:

It's maingardens, that's plural.org and hopefully take

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that turn off at the at the Booth Bay Route 1 area on Route 27. It's very easy to kind of pass on by, but you don't want to do that. You want to actually go down towards Booth Bay and then get actually you're kind of in the woods a little ways. You have to be intentional about visiting.

Rodney Eason:

You do you do. And don't let red seats determine you from going over the Wiscasset Bridge. Come on down. We'd love, we'd love to see everyone come this summer. We're going to have extended hours a few nights this summer and then the holiday light show will actually be a specially ticketed event during the nighttime.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I will keep following your progress on Instagram, keep seeing what's going on at Botanical Gardens. We've been speaking with Rodney Eason, who is the director of horticulture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Gardens. Thanks for driving down and being with us today.

Rodney Eason:

Thanks for having me. It's my pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 191Maine lands. Our guests have included Chris Franklin and Rodney Eason. 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 Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Maine Land show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. And happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers who are listening. May you have a bountiful life.