Two longtime Wild Gardens of Acadia volunteers got rightful mentions in a recent New York Times article highlighting volunteers who make a difference at National Parks and other federal lands.

Anne Kozak, who began volunteering in the gardens in 1972, is quoted in the piece for her dedicated tenure alongside Wild Gardens co-chair Helen Koch.

Anne Kozak and Helen Koch pose for a photo in the Wild Gardens of Acadia in Acadia National Park in 2022. (Photo by Ashley L. Conti/Friends of Acadia)

Here’s an excerpt:

In 1972, Anne Kozak had just moved to Bar Harbor and was looking for a way to meet people. So she started volunteering at the Wild Gardens of Acadia, a three-quarter-acre collection of the native plants that grow in the national park. Fifty-three years later, Ms. Kozak, 88, is still at the garden almost every day. No longer able to dig for extended periods, she spends about 600 hours a year coordinating other volunteers, educating the public and raising more than $150,000 annually along with Helen Koch, the co-chair of the Friends of Acadia Wild Gardens of Acadia Committee.

“It’s like a job and lasts 12 months of the year,” said Ms. Kozak, who lives less than a quarter mile from the park. What was once a patch of overgrown wild blackberries and red maples scarred from a 1947 fire, she said, “is now a beautiful place and a respite for visitors that showcases how native plants survive in a particular environment.”

Read the full story: Meet the Volunteers Who Help Keep America’s Public Lands Running – via New York Times