Letter from the Executive Director

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Dear Friends, I reflect on the past year with a mixture of grief and gratitude. Grief for all of the lives, livelihoods, and moments we lost. Gratitude for our community, for essential workers and health-care professionals, for the technology that has kept us connected, for modern medicine and science, and of course, for Mother Nature who stepped up and heeded society’s call for respite and recovery. In fact, Mother Nature began to regain her rightful place in our collective eyes this past year. Time outside became the leisure pursuit of choice for more Californians than ever before. Demand for outdoor spaces like our Garden and local trails “went viral” as more of us sought low-risk places to stretch our legs and our minds and connect with nature. Over 1,400 new members joined the Garden in 2020, a testament to this shift and to the increasing importance of our work. To those of you who are new and just getting to know us – Welcome! We are so grateful to have you in the Garden family. With more of us are vaccinated each day, this Spring is a season of renewed hope and opportunity. Our Garden’s living collection (pages 4-5) abounds with new growth and color once again, as do the forests, meadows, mountainsides, and islands we help to conserve all across the State (pages 8-11). The transformations of Spring – from darkness to light, from cold to warmth, from grey to full-spectrum color, and from soil to tender green seedlings– remind us that we too are beginning to reemerge, full of opportunity and hope. In her poem, The Summer Day, Mary Oliver asks us “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” In this moment of renewed opportunity for both humans and nature, perhaps a better question is, “What can I do today to protect both human health and wellbeing and the future of our planet?” There are plenty of simple ways to make an impact – from developing a deeper connection to your environment, to using native plants in your home Garden (page 7), to sharing the magic of Earth’s many creatures with a child (page 27). And as you will read in our 2020 Donor Impact Report (pages 16-24), your support of the Garden advances those goals every day. I hope you will take pride in all that you have helped us to accomplish over the past year and take advantage of the opportunity ahead. See you in the Garden,

Steve Windhager, Ph.D. Executive Director

P.S. Did you know that the Garden turned 95 this spring? Be sure to read about how we’ve captured first-hand stories from the Garden through the years with our Oral History Program (pages 12-15)!

Background Photo: Greg Trainor