With more than 150 people looking on, Maine Audubon cut the ribbon on the new Ann & Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center on May 27. This new building and space has been years in the making, and it will serve as the hub of education and habitat restoration activities impacting communities and landscapes statewide. We are immensely grateful to Ann and Jim Hancock, whose leadership and financial support made this project possible.
In partnership with Wright-Ryan Builders, Aceto Kimball Landscape Architects, and Acorn Engineering, Kaplan Thompson Architects designed a high performance, all-wood building constructed primarily of local materials, intended to be fully net zero energy and to stand the test of time, both architecturally and in terms of durability and resilience. Paired timber-framed, flying canopies host a new large, beautiful classroom space complete with restrooms, a small kitchen, and ample storage on one side, and additional space for stewardship facilities on the other. Large windows and doors help classes spill out into and take advantage of stunning new landscaping consisting of happy, healthy Maine native plants.
Thank you to the more than 100 donors who have supported this project so far, and to everyone who joined us for the grand opening, including Governor Janet Mills who assisted with the ribbon cutting. The Ann & Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center provides a place for Maine Audubon to anchor a program that will have a huge impact on the state and the organization right away. Already, the new space has allowed us to host a symposium for 100 people—teachers, principals, state leaders, and other educators—from across Maine for a Climate Education Summit focused on phenology and funded by the Maine Department of Education, and next week we’ve invited 100 participants to a Restoration Horticulture and Nature-Based Strategies for Shoreline Resilience event hosted by the Maine Climate Science Information Exchange.
Our work to improve visitor resources will continue this summer as we construct an all-persons trail, and seek full funding for improvements to the existing visitor center and summer camp space. At the same time, Maine Audubon is expanding the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Greater Bangor in order to meet program and visitor demands in our two year-round centers.
For more information or to join these efforts, please contact Kate Lewis, Chief Development Officer, at 207-233-7615, or klewis@maineaudubon.org.
Donate to Maine Audubon’s Native Plants Program
MEDIA: The Ann and Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center opening
• Maine Audubon unveils a new educational events building at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth, WGME-TV
• Maine Audubon opens native plant education center, Portland Press Herald
