From the Director's Desk: Sustainability

Like a healthy tree, Lan­dis has been devel­op­ing a strong root sys­tem, and like a tree with strong roots, the top growth becomes sus­tained. From the gar­dens and col­lec­tions to our finances and pro­grams, every­thing at Lan­dis must be sus­tain­able for long-term suc­cess. There­fore, sus­tain­abil­i­ty is our mantra. Even dur­ing these tough finan­cial times, when many not-for-prof­its find them­selves in dan­ger of clos­ing, Lan­dis has been able to sur­vive – and to look for­ward to a healthy future.

Real­is­ti­cal­ly, mon­ey is what keeps the Arbore­tum grow­ing. Grants have always been one of our top pri­or­i­ties, and grants have enabled us to sus­tain our mis­sion. Suc­cess­ful grant appli­ca­tions have made it pos­si­ble to main­tain and expand our hor­ti­cul­tur­al col­lec­tions, trails, and build­ings, and bring qual­i­ty pro­grams to our site.

In 2014, we were able to hire more staff and con­tract work­ers to care for the Arboretum’s col­lec­tions and to improve our walk­ing and hik­ing trails. In addi­tion, the gen­eros­i­ty of mem­bers allowed us to make upgrades to the Barn and Meet­ing­house and add more stor­age space in each location.

Award­ed grants of 2014 include:

• ZBGA Grant Award. This fund­ing goes direct­ly toward the care of our hor­ti­cul­tur­al collections. 
• Com­mu­ni­ty Arts Grant (DEC). This grant fund­ed the Met­tawee Riv­er The­ater per­for­mance on July 26^th.
• Schoharie Occu­pan­cy Tax Grant 2014 and the Mont­gomery Tourism Grant 2014. Both grants con­tributed to our ​‘Live at Lan­dis’ music series.
• Iro­quois Pipeline Com­mu­ni­ty Grant 2014. This grant con­tributed to the cre­ation of a new trail at Lan­dis includ­ing labor and sig­nage. The trail will be offi­cial­ly open to the pub­lic in spring 2015.
• SPN Sign Grant 2014. This grant was used to pur­chase QR-cod­ed signs regard­ing the emer­ald ash bor­er, the Asian long­horn bee­tle, and sev­er­al indi­vid­ual trees.
• Poets & Writ­ers, Inc./NYS Arts Coun­cil Grants. These grants fund­ed three series of writ­ing classes.
• Stewart’s Hol­i­day Match. This grant was used to help pay for George Steele’s nature edu­ca­tion pro­grams at Landis.

Lan­dis also held sev­er­al suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing events in 2014, includ­ing both the Spring and Fall Plant, Book and Bake sales, the Peren­ni­al 5K Run/​Walk, and the Wine Tast­ing Event at Grapevine Farms. With­out spon­sors such as Ster­ling Insur­ance of Cobleskill, Kintz Plas­tics, Jan­ney Mont­gomery Scott, Don­na LaV­i­gne Insur­ance, Han­naford of Esper­ance, Grapevine Farms, and our mem­bers, donors, and vol­un­teers, these events would not have been as suc­cess­ful as they were.