CAPE ELIZABETH – Supporters of the ongoing arboretum project at Fort Williams Park got a boost Tuesday night when they were handed a check for $17,500.
The presentation was made by members of the South Portland and Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club. The money will be used to develop a children’s garden near the park’s tennis courts.
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Tuesday’s crowd of about 100 supporters gathered at Cliffside, a sloping swath overlooking Ship Cove, Cushing Island and Fort Gorges, to celebrate the completion of the first arboretum site.
Such a gathering would have been impossible a few months ago because the site was overrun with invasive plants, bushes and undergrowth.
Members of the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation raised money, mobilized hundreds of volunteers and received numerous in-kind donations to clear the one-acre hillside.
“It’s amazing now,” said Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern. “This was an ugly, overgrown area. Now, it opens up the whole entrance to the (Portland) harbor.”
The foundation started to clear Cliffside in November 2010. Since then, the hillside has been replanted with native trees, high-bush blueberries, huckleberry and juniper.
On Tuesday, visitors strolled along the Cliff Walk — a path that leads from Cliffside to Portland Head Light — and sat in chairs that had been set up for the event.
“It’s hard to imagine that two years ago you couldn’t walk onto this site,” Kathryn Bacastow told the gathering. “I don’t think any of us could imagine what was possible here.”
Cliffside will serve as a model for 14 additional landscaping projects planned for Fort Williams Park, said Bacastow, whom others describe as the project’s “visionary.”
Those sites will be linked by a walking trail.
The next phase will involve development of the children’s garden. Bacastow said the foundation has invited five firms to submit design proposals for the garden.
Children will get to help select the winning proposal this fall.
The foundation plans to continue its efforts to remove invasive plants that have overrun sections of the 90-acre park, especially the cliffs between Cliffside and Portland Head Light.
“It’s too beautiful to stop,” Bacastow said. “We intend to march to the lighthouse a little like Sherman did to Atlanta.”
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
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