Dear Friends,

Download the 2006-2007 Annual Report (PDF 2.8 Meg) Photos courtesy of SFBG visitor Toto Hartono.

As I sit to write you during this holiday season, having just celebrated Thanksgiving, I pause to reflect on what those of us associated with the Botanical Garden have to be thankful for. First, we have the glorious climate that makes this collection possible and flourish. Second, we are standing on the shoulders of a number of men and women who had the foresight, perseverance and talent to take an area of wind blown sand dunes and turn it into one of the most beautiful urban parks (and botanical gardens) in the nation.

In 1860 this was an inhospitable place for most of the plants now in the Botanical Garden's collections. Most said it couldn't be done, no one could plant a viable park in such an environment. But along came William Hammond Hall, a military engineer whose specialty was stabilizing beaches. He went to work and began the decades long process of transformation. John McLaren, a doughty Scot, ruled Golden Gate Park for 50 years and brought order and beauty. Helene Strybing made her famous gift of $200,000 in the 1920's, providing the wherewithal to complete the infrastructure of the Botanical Garden and support McLaren's plan for an arboretum and botanical garden. Dr. Elizabeth McClintock, along with a number of her male, botanically trained colleagues, founded the Society in 1955 to bridge the burgeoning collections with the public through educational programs and publications.

We are fortunate indeed to be the beneficiaries of this long and passionate outpouring of hard work and foresight. We have all inherited a public treasure, and it is gratifying to see, on a daily basis, the continuation of this dedication to beauty and learning. As the world turns to its trusted institutions to provide guidance toward a future fraught with uncertainties about the effects of climate change on our lives, we should all be doubly thankful that there exists a laboratory for young and old to learn how they each can make changes that can alter their futures in a positive way.

As we approach the end of the year, I hope all of you will join me in expressing thanks for this wonderful gem of a garden. One way to do that and help insure that the Garden will be here for many future generations is to make a monetary gift to the Botanical Garden Society. I promise we will use it wisely to continue to make improvements in the Garden, secure its collections, and educate the youth of today who tomorrow will be charged with the safekeeping of this sanctuary.

That can be done with the "Donate Now" button on our website or with the envelope we have enclosed in the latest edition of the Leaflet newsletter which members should be receiving soon. Also in the newsletter is an Annual Report that outlines the accomplishments of the past year.

Please accept my genuine best wishes for warm and fulfilling holidays.

Very best regards,