Maine Audubon’s Native Plants Program Expanding into New Building
Maine Audubon has unveiled plans for the Ann and Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center and expanded, adjacent growing area, to be built at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm headquarters in greater Portland. Supported initially by generous donations from Ann and Jim Hancock, the new structure will enable Maine Audubon to continue to grow its thriving native plants program. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025.
“When Maine Audubon began its native plants program in 2016, named ‘Bringing Nature Home’ after Doug Tallamy’s ground-breaking book, we didn’t fully anticipate just how important restoring and rebuilding the natural biodiversity in Maine would become to our community,” says Executive Director Andy Beahm. “As public demand for conservation horticulture information and native plant restoration continued to grow, we evaluated our growing operations and programmatic space and put plans in place to drastically increase capacity. We explored several different options, structures, and locations.”
The decision was made to take advantage of the agricultural history of Gilsland Farm, and its position as the most-visited Maine Audubon sanctuary in the state in the most populated region of Maine, to expand this very important part of mission-focused activities.
Engineers and architects assessed the current barn located at Gilsland Farm and found considerable rot, decay, settlement, and deflection in the roof, joints, beams, joists, and the limited foundation. The barn, which was used by farmers and private homeowners before it came to Maine Audubon in the 1970s, was created as a storage facility. The previous owners, the Moulton family, used it as an extra hay barn. “Though we’re not 100% sure,” says Beahm, “we believe it dates from the 1830s.” Maine Audubon had the barn repaired in 1988, extending its life for an additional 30+ years.
But it was never designed for public assembly, and its current deterioration makes it unsafe for use. To rebuild the barn to modern safety and accessibility standards would have required such an extensive renovation that its historic character would be lost in the process. Maine Audubon leadership decided to disassemble and remove the barn, and create a new gathering space in its stead to conserve resources and amplify the effectiveness of the space.
This spring, Ryan Deane, of Down and Back Wood Salvage, a Maine wood artisan who specializes in repurposing old buildings into new projects, will dismantle the barn with the aim to salvage as much of the material as possible. Some of this material will be incorporated into the future Center, and other materials will be recycled and reused in other local building projects, thus giving new life to the old barn.
The barn has also been used by Barn Swallows for many years, and their safety and wellbeing have been incorporated into the plans. Alternate nesting structures will be erected for the swallows to use for the 2025 nesting season. The future center will incorporate nest shelves on the exterior so that the swallows can continue to make Gilsland Farm their home.
2024 marked 50 years of Maine Audubon’s presence at what is now known as Gilsland Farm Audubon Sanctuary. On December 2, 1974, Maine Audubon received a donation of approximately 6.75 acres in Falmouth along the Presumpscot Estuary from Ruth Moulton Freeman to serve as a living memorial to her father David Moulton, and Maine Audubon was able to move from its offices in Portland to create a wildlife sanctuary where people can visit and immerse themselves in nature. Through subsequent donations, the sanctuary has expanded to 65 acres and we are now able to serve the largest population center in the state, the greater Portland region of some 250,000 residents.
The organization’s impact has grown significantly in the last five decades. As the work has evolved, our presence and usage of this sanctuary has expanded and been continuously adapted to the needs of a modern population of people who are eager to engage in Maine Audubon’s mission. At this moment, roughly 100,000 people visit Gilsland Farm annually. The sanctuary is free and open to all, and is accessible via public transportation. Gilsland Farm is also a hub for nearly 50 staff members year-round, which swells to 100 in the summer season.
“Maine Audubon’s vision is to make use of our spaces in such a way that more people can assemble, and where public and educational programs can connect more people to our mission to conserve wildlife and habitat,” says Board of Trustees Chair Michael Catania. “Everything has a life cycle, and we’ve loved having the barn be a part of Maine Audubon history. Now, we’re ready to create new history in a building that can provide educational space and provide learning, enjoyment, and shelter for future generations.”
In the coming years, the public will start to see additional changes at Gilsland Farm, as Maine Audubon makes investments in facilities that keep its footprint right-sized for the progress it is making for the next 50 years in conserving wildlife habitat. These changes have been approved by both the Falmouth Zoning Board and Planning Board, after months of extensive public comment and significant improvements made to the original application. In addition to the Native Plants Education Center, a new Stewardship Annex will enable Maine Audubon to store tools and equipment to better manage its sanctuaries, and provide much-needed space for equipment used in conservation programs including the Coastal Birds program, the Loon Restoration program, Stream Smart road crossing work, as well as other community science programs.
Maine Audubon is excited to announce these changes and is grateful to every generous supporter who has made contributions to these projects and Maine Audubon’s mission.
More information about Bringing Nature Home: maineaudubon.org/plants
Kaplan Thompson Architects, Aceto Kimball Landscape Architecture, Acorn Engineering, and Wright-Ryan Construction have worked professionally and collaboratively with Maine Audubon over the past two years to develop the plans and details for this and other projects that will be rolled out in 2025 and beyond. If you would like to learn more about or contribute to our upcoming plans, please contact Kate Lewis, Director of Development, at klewis@maineaudubon.org.
