On a sunny morning along the Chesapeake Bay, visitors strolling the paths at Sandy Point State Park may notice butterflies drifting over blue flag iris and seaside goldenrod, bees crowding native blooms, and clusters of volunteers crouched in the garden beds, pulling weeds and talking plants.
What they may not realize is that they are witnessing the early stages of one of Maryland’s most ambitious conservation gardening partnerships—a collaboration between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Sandy Point State Park, and a team of University of Maryland Extension (UME) Master Gardeners dedicated to transforming this popular public destination into a vibrant educational hub focused on native ecology.
For Amy Willard, an Anne Arundel County Master Gardener volunteer and lead on the Sandy Point project, the journey to this moment began in a garden she once disliked.
“My grandpa had a magical vegetable garden,” she said with a laugh. “But as a teenager, I thought it was dirty and buggy and terrible. Weeding felt like punishment.”
But as she grew up, she found that she rather enjoyed flower boxes in her windows, and after spending fifteen years as a single mom, Willard met the love of her life and bought a new house where she began planting patches for pollinators. After retiring, Willard found a renewed interest in a hobby she once disliked and started on the path to becoming a certified Master Gardener. Now, only a few years after becoming certified in 2022, Willard is leading a new Master Gardener initiative at Sandy Point State Park—one centered on native plants, pollinator habitats, and public education.
This initiative coincided with a significant transformation already in progress at the park which opened the door for Master Gardeners to create educational events for the public. Sandy Point’s south beach area underwent a landscape restoration project supported by the Great Maryland Outdoors Act, which intro-duced over 8,000 native shrubs, trees, perennials, and grasses to the site.
Before the restoration, much of the area consisted of non-natives, erosion-prone dunes, and standing water problems, said Suzanne Weber, horticulturalist for both the Helen Avelynn Tawes Garden at DNR and Sandy Point. “It was decided that it was time for Sandy Point to let nature reclaim it—but with human intervention.”
The intervention was massive, with every plant selected for the project coming from native species lists recommended for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. “These are plants you would naturally find in Maryland and in this region,” Weber said. “Many are specifically associated with Anne Arundel County habitats.”
The restoration serves practical purposes beyond beauty. Native plantings help absorb stormwater, reduce erosion, support pollinators, and create habitat for birds and beneficial insects. Complementing these new habitats is a mile-long accessible perimeter trail, along with picnic pads and wetland bridges that lead directly to the beach. And all of these spaces are opportunities for the Master Gardeners to provide educational outreach to the thousands of visitors that descend on the park every year.
Unlike demonstration gardens that primarily reach environmentally engaged audiences, Sandy Point State Park attracts beachgoers, families, fishermen, tourists, and school groups—many of whom may have never thought about the ecological role of native plants.
“That was exciting to us,” Willard said. “If people leave here simply understanding why this matters, that’s a win.” Changing public attitudes is the core of the Master Gardener mission and shapes much of the team’s project planning at Sandy Point.
“People can still have mulch and neat garden beds,” said Maxine Da-Som Yoon, Master Gardener coordinator for University of Maryland Extension. “But if they switch out traditional plants for native alternatives, it can make such a difference environmentally.”
Among the first priorities for the Master Gardener project are plant labels and guided “plant walks” that will help visitors identify native species and understand their ecological roles. The team hopes to eventually create self-guided tours with numbered markers and scheduled, guided walks led by volunteers.
“We’re trying to create something that people can experience whether or not a Master Gardener is physically here,” Willard said.
Children’s activities are also part of the plan, along with seasonal educational events where the public can learn about native plant species and why they’re beneficial for local ecosystems, and partnerships with Master Naturalists and the Maryland Conservation Corps.
And because Sandy Point is one of Maryland’s busiest parks, outreach opportunities are constant. “I need a sandwich board sign that says, ‘Master Gardeners at Work: Ask Us About Native Plants,’” Willard laughed. “People stop and ask questions all the time.”
The volunteers themselves bring a depth of expertise including professional horticulturalists, landscape designers, and conservation advocates volunteering their time. “When Amy came on board, I thought, life is going to be okay: the Master Gardener troops are coming,” Weber said. “This is the embryonic stages of what will be a very long and healthy, mutually beneficial relationship.”
While much of the hands-on work for the Master Gardener team is weeding the garden beds, for newer volunteers, maintenance itself can be educational, said Yoon. “For the newer volunteers who may not know as much, garden maintenance is a great way for them to get started—they learn what’s native and non-native, learn plant identification, slowly and organically.”
And for many gardeners, the repetitive work becomes unexpectedly calming. “Pulling weeds is therapeutic,” Willard admitted. “Which is funny considering how much teenage me hated it.”
At Sandy Point, the volunteers’ long-term vision extends beyond garden beds. They hope visitors will begin noticing the connections between plants, insects, birds, water, and human choices.
Willard has already seen those effects in her own yard after introducing native species. “My husband noticed more butterflies and more birds almost immediately,” she said. “And I hadn’t even gone all-in yet. Just a few native plants made a visible difference.”
That, she believes, is the most important lesson Sandy Point can offer.
“You don’t have to become a Master Gardener,” she said. “You don’t even have to go home and plant a pollinator garden. But if people leave thinking differently about the choices they make in their own yards—if they just begin to understand why it matters—that’s enough to start.”
-Laura Wormuth