A message from Patrick, our CEO

Fall brings a marked change of pace to the Land & Garden Preserve and to Mount Desert Island. Many of our summer friends have departed, while those who remain are experiencing the quieter rhythms of the season.

As the gardens offer their final displays of color, our attention turns both backward, with gratitude for the season, and forward, toward the work ahead. At this time of year, stewardship feels especially visible, not only in what continues to bloom, but in the preparations already underway for seasons to come.

Throughout this newsletter, you’ll encounter stories that reflect the many dimensions of that stewardship. At the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, we are marking the centennial of an extraordinary landscape while deepening our understanding of one of its most iconic features: the pink wall. Created as a “magnificent afterthought,” the wall embodies the creativity, curiosity, and ambition that shaped the garden. Understanding its history more fully helps us make thoughtful decisions about its future.

You’ll also read about asters, whose late-season blooms provide both color in the gardens and an important source of nourishment for pollinators. Even as the growing season draws to a close, these landscapes remain active, interconnected ecological systems.

At Thuya Garden, a new stone path and an expanded pollinator garden demonstrate how thoughtful improvements can enrich the visitor experience while supporting ecological health. Projects like these are part of our larger commitment to creating landscapes that are welcoming, resilient, and thoughtfully cared for.

This season has also given us many opportunities to gather. Through educational programs, special events, and celebrations of the staff, volunteers, board members, and supporters who sustain our work, we have been reminded that the Preserve is more than a collection of extraordinary places. It is also a community of people committed to caring for these landscapes and passing them on to future generations—a community that extends well beyond Mount Desert Island and the summer season.

That care must include the people who make our work possible every day. I am especially pleased to welcome Barb Stoddard as the Preserve’s first Director of People & Culture. Her arrival represents an important investment in our staff and in the organization we are continuing to build together. By supporting our people and cultivating a healthy organizational culture, we are building a strong foundation for the future of our mission.

Whether you are still here on Mount Desert Island or have returned elsewhere for the winter, I hope this newsletter keeps you connected to the places and people that make the Preserve so special. The quieter months are an important part of our annual rhythm: a time to reflect on what we have learned, attend to the work that is less visible during the height of summer, and prepare thoughtfully for the year ahead. Wherever the season finds you, your support makes that work possible.

With gratitude,

Patrick MacRae

Photo by Nikolai Fox

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