Dear Bloedel Reserve Friends & Supporters,

This November, I’d like to express gratitude to the amazing group of people that sustain and support Bloedel Reserve. First, I want to thank our dedicated, flexible, and resilient Staff. We begin the month of November by celebrating Staff Appreciation Week from November 1st through 7th, during which time the Reserve will be closed. I want to give you some context for why we’re doing this.

Reflecting on the last nineteen months, we have persevered under challenging circumstances. After closing the Reserve for nearly three months, we have been fortunate to be able to remain continuously open since late May 2020. This year, we are operating with a smaller staff team and a reduced budget. In spite of that, we have been able to fulfill our core priorities of providing excellent landscape care and a high-quality guest experience, while remaining dedicated to our health and safety standards. In addition to all of this, our team has made great strides advancing key initiatives throughout the organization, including completing and operationalizing our new Compost Facility, launching the Arrival Landscape renovation, and furthering our IDEA initiative.

While I am proud of our team for their dedication, I know these accomplishments have not been easy. Because of coverage issues, many Staff members have found it hard to take time off, so we’re giving everyone a paid vacation. In this way we can celebrate our collective accomplishments and return feeling refreshed to welcome you back. Thank you for your support of Bloedel Reserve and of our talented team!

Second, I want to thank you for being a part of the committed group of people that supports Bloedel Reserve. Whether you are a volunteer, trustee, donor, member, or guest, your involvement and support matters. More than ever, our community is contributing time, talent, and resources to Bloedel. With your help, we met our goal for our Summer Appeal fundraiser, raising nearly $600,000, which provides vital support and brings us to within $70K of meeting our annual budget to fulfill our mission. Our volunteer corps is bigger than ever, counting more than 250 strong. We’re also serving a record number of guests, and our membership is growing. With your help, we are evolving with these challenging times, doing more than we thought was possible.

One positive outcome of the pandemic is a greater realization that nature matters–fundamentally improving our health, our outlook, and our lives. On behalf of all of us at Bloedel Reserve, I want to express sincere gratitude for your support of our mission and the people who make it possible.

Most sincerely,

Ed

Edward Moydell
The Richard A. Brown President & CEO

It’s a wonder…

Bloedel Reserve is a 150-acre wonder of nature, created by the imagination, vision, and a passionate love of the natural world shared by our founders, Prentice and Virginia Bloedel. Working with the rugged geography of the land, they artfully transformed a rough-hewn Northwest forest into a harmonious series of curated gardens, structural features, and distinctive landscapes, with nature as canvas and paint.

It’s our heritage…

The history of the land on which Bloedel Reserve sit extends back much farther than the Bloedels. We express deep gratitude towards the Suquamish People, People of the Clear Salt Water, for sustaining the land within which our healing landscapes thrive. Those entrusted with caring for Bloedel Reserve acknowledge that the sacred ancestral territory on which the Reserve resides flourishes because of the stewardship, since time immemorial, by the Suquamish people. We will honor and respect their legacy by nurturing this land and the waterways of the Central Salish Sea for present and future generations.