It may surprise you to learn that your “Garden” membership is actually membership in the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation, Inc., a private, 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that supports the Garden financially, provides for the association of members, and holds and protects land as a conservation land trust. Since this issue of Conservation Gardeneris devoted to land trusts, I thought you might be interested in learning a little more about the Foundation that makes it possible for the Garden to conserve and steward over 1,100 acres of land in and around the Triangle.
Although the North Carolina Botanical Garden was initially established on 72 acres of Mason Farm woodlands in 1952 by the University’s Board of Trustees at the request of Dr. John Couch, then chair of the UNC Botany Department, it wasn’t until 1966 that the Garden opened its first trails to the public under the leadership of Dr. C. Ritchie Bell, also a Botany faculty member and the first director of the Garden. Without staff or resources, the early Garden was, as we like to say about ranching in Texas… Land Rich, Cash Poor.
Enter William Lanier Hunt, a sharply dressed horticulturist with a double major in romance languages and botany from UNC and an eye for real estate. Hunt’s land donation of 103 acres along Morgan Creek in 1961, followed by Nancy and Edward Gray’s donation of 8 acres in 1961, and the UNC Trustees’ addition of 96 acres of Mason Farm in 1965, made the Garden even richer in land but did little to alleviate its cash flow woes.
To remedy the fiscal crisis, Hunt led the effort to form an organization that would provide financial support to the Garden and also serve as a “land trust” that could acquire land for conservation. In 1966, the Botanical Garden Foundation was incorporated and Hunt elected its first president. A year later, 291 individuals had joined paying an annual due of $2 and the Foundation finished 1967 with $117.31 in its bank account. Humble beginnings for a Foundation that today has over 3,400 members and a $4.8 million permanent endowment providing $230,000 in investment income to the Garden each year.
Many of you have made generous contributions to build these permanent endowment funds supporting Coker Arboretum, Battle Park, and the Mason Farm Biological Reserve. Funds generated by these endowments have never been more important to the preservation and care of these Carolina treasures. Please show your support for the Foundation by making a gift and renewing your membership.