Dear Editor:

I would like Bill Cullina of CMBG to know that I write nonfiction. I leave fiction to novelists and salesmen. Cullina claims not to recognize CMBG’s mission statement (“to protect, preserve, and enhance the botanical heritage and natural landscapes of coastal Maine”), yet it’s written on every 990 tax form CMBG has filed (they’re all online, with his signature) through 2015, and was on CMBG’s website until two months ago. But if CMBG has recently updated its mission statement, that would be a win for honesty, since Bill Cullina’s new version abandons conservation (“protect and preserve”) for entertainment (“inspire”).

Other information Boothbay residents should know and comment on:

• CMBG has received over $400,000 from IMLS and the Dept. of Agriculture, despite Cullina’s claim they receive no federal funding.
• 12 acres of conservation land will be deforested for a research facility intended in part to profit from climate change.
• 13 acres of conservation land will be deforested for a farm to grow plants which could be grown on already cleared CMBG property.
• Cullina’s claim that 195 acres will remain undeveloped is true only if: a) the map he uses in the 2014 Board Member webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGviKnlBkqs) is wrong; and b) he includes all bits fragmented by roads, fences, and exotic gardens. Sadly, any junior naturalist — like those CMBG hopes to train — knows that fragmented habitat is poor habitat.
• I’m happy to hear that CMBG will protect its vernal pools. That reverses its plan, now on file at the Boothbay town office, to impact 332,333 sq.ft. of significant vernal pool habitat.

While I appreciate Bill Cullina’s strenuous attempt to spin the facts, what is true is that CMBG is no longer concerned with preservation. Perhaps, Mr. Cullina should question whether a 300,000-visitor anti-conservation horticultural Disneyland is really the best thing for a small town on a peninsula, or the best mission can the Gardens come up with in the midst of a global environmental crisis. It would be better if CMBG scaled back its 20-year plan and chose to live up to its longstanding “preserve and protect” mission statement rather than rewriting it to justify some misguided ambitions.

Jason Anthony

Bristol