FRAMINGHAM, Mass. —New England Wild Flower Society’s formally launched the “Growing Connections” Campaign Thursday evening, May 15 at its Garden in the Woods headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts. At a Garden Party attended by donors, sponsors, trustees, and Society staff, Campaign Co-chairs Frances Clark and Lalor Burdick announced the most ambitious fundraising effort ever undertaken by the 108-year old conservation group. The Campaign aims to raise $3.8 million dollars to support two bold initiatives of the Society for the future of native plant conservation and horticulture. The Society plans to build a LEEDS certified Native Plant Center and multi-use agricultural building at its Nasami Farm & Sanctuary in Whately, Massachusetts, located in the Pioneer Valley, that already operates as the largest grower of native plants in New England.  The "Growing Connections" Campaign will also endow the perpetual revision of the Society’s comprehensive online flora of New England plants, to make accurate plant identification accessible for all.

Commenting on the campaign goals, Frances Clark, Campaign Co-Chair, Trustee and Conservation Consultant noted, “Growing native plants at Nasami Farm enables New England Wild Flower Society to promote native plants throughout the whole of the region. Each time someone carries away a plant, they spread the mission of the Society which is to preserve the native plants and healthy ecosystems. For hundreds of years the Pioneer Valley has maintained a farming legacy. The Society is committed to extending that tradition into the future, and to bringing a new form of environmentally-sensitive work with a whole new crop.

The Native Plant Center will combine the Society’s propagation and ecological expertise to support the habitat restoration projects that lie at the heart of its conservation mission, and plans to develop and promote new eco-industries including green roofs, and ecological landscaping. “As a venerable non-profit organization focusing on sustainability, we ourselves must be sustainable from a business and ecological point of view. We simultaneously increase demand for native plants through outreach and education, while helping the public understand the connection between native plants, healthy habitats, and greener choices. Nursery sales provided 40 percent of the Society’s earned income in 2007, representing 16 percent of the overall budget," said Clark. 

“We are well on our way to developing the most significant native plant nursery in the country,” said Ruah Donnelly, Trustee, Chair of the Nasami Farm Building Committee, and Author of The Adventurous Gardener.  “Collecting local seed, creating an ecologically-responsible source of superb and beautiful native plants—this is our aim, and the future of horticulture, and it does not yet fully exist anywhere else. A sustainable and sensitive relationship to our home ground that uses and combines  plants that are native —that’s where we are all headed. It’s possible for the Society to undertake this enlightened program because of the generosity of previous Nasami Farm owners Bob and Nancy August who long envisioned a combined nursery and sanctuary as the future of their land,”  continued Donnelly.

The Society is the regional representative for the Millennium Seed Bank, a worldwide conservation effort led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England, to conserve seed for 10% of the world’s seed-bearing plant species. Nasami Farm plays an important role in the effort to preserve selected native plants of the Northeastern United States.  Nasami’s new agricultural building will include a state-of-the-art Seed Bank to aid in native plant collection, propagation, and seed storage.

The Society’s nursery at Nasami Farm is not only a leader in using increasingly ecological methods in  producing native plants but its new Native Plant Center is sustainably designed using “green” building methods and sustainable materials. The Center will be a LEEDS certified building created by local builders using local materials,  wherever possible. The building’s ecological sensibility conforms perfectly with the town of Whately’s commitment to local farms and the strong ethic in the Pioneer Valley community to use and preserve fertile farmland.

Designed by Architerra, a Boston area green-focused architecture and design firm, and to be built by Scapes, Builders and Landscapers LLC, locally based in Conway, Massachusetts, ground breaking begins next month with completion scheduled for early summer, 2009.

Frances Clark shared details on the innovation of the Online New England Flora project: “Through our online flora we can share botanical expertise with both amateurs and plant specialists. We are developing the keys—literally— to understanding the plant world of New England. By making it easier to learn the names of native plants, everyone can engage in the fun, interest, and excitement of the green world and become advocates for native plants and our natural habitats. It all starts with knowing the names. The flora is designed especially for the next generation of stewards of the land to learn and enjoy and therefore protect the future of native plants and their habitats,” Clark noted. With support from the campaign the Online New England Flora, created by renowned New England Wild Flower Society Botanist Arthur Haines, will be endowed for perpetual updating, available to all. For more information, contact Dianne Butt, New England Wild Flower Society Director of Development at 508-877-7630 x 3104 or dbutt@newenglandwild.org, or visit the website at www.newenglandwild.org.            -