LEON LEVY NATIVE PLANT PRESERVE TO PROVIDE 25-ACRE SANCTUARY OF INDIGENOUS ELEUTHERA PLANTS
Project Expected to Inject more than $2 Million into Local Economy
Eleuthera, Bahamas, February 19th 2009 - A community Open House was held February 19th in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, to celebrate the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, a 25-acre sanctuary, being created in partnership between the Bahamas National Trust and the Leon Levy Foundation, to showcase the Bahamas rich plant life.
Open House attendees included the Hon. Earl D. Deveaux Minister of the Environment and Mrs. Deveaux; members of the Bahamas National Trust Council; Eric Carey, Executive Director of the Trust; Shelby White, founding Trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation; local government officials, community members and others.
The preserve, the first of its kind in the Caribbean is being created by famed landscape designer Raymond Jungles in concert with Wilderness Graphics, Inc. of Tallahassee, Florida and world renowned expert on subtropical plants Dr. Ethan Freid working with the Bahamas National Trust.
The preserve will present a rare opportunity for visitors to learn the glorious history of the native plants of The Bahamas. It will feature medicinal plants used for centuries to make teas and infusions that still hold curative powers. The site’s abundant native plants include orchids, bromeliads, black, red, and white mangroves, wild coffees, mahogany trees, five fingers and numerous other plant species and birds indigenous to the area. The Preserve will also feature some of the culinary and herbal plants native to the islands. Visitors will be able to walk a mile of trail for a unique native plant experience. The project is expected to inject more than $2 million into the local economy.
The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve will be donated to the Bahamas National Trust by the Leon Levy Foundation, a New York foundation created from the estate of the late Leon Levy, considered a Wall Street genius who founded the Oppenheimer Mutual Funds. In 2006 Shelby White, Leon Levy’s widow, approached the Bahamas National Trust about creating an appropriate memorial to her husband who so loved the islands where the couple long had a home. Leon Levy had a passion for knowledge and was intrigued by the possible medicinal value of the plants growing all around them, but whose knowledge and use was rapidly diminishing.
Working with the Trust’s Executive Director, Eric Carey, the Leon Levy Foundation intends the preserve to be an educational resource, a habitat for migrating birds and a major visitor’s attraction. The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve will serve as a center for excellence for environmental education and as a major public access facility for Bahamians to learn about their resident flora and its cultural impact on the daily life of island inhabitants.
Portia Sweeting, Bahamas National Trust Director of Education, said, “This will become a living classroom for Bahamian students who are studying plants and their value to Bahamians”
Shelby White said, “This project has been a long standing dream of mine. Working with the Bahamas National Trust as our partners, I believe we will create the finest nature preserve in the Bahamas, a place that will make Eleuthera a must-visit tourist destination and of which we will all be proud.”
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About the Leon Levy Foundation
The Leon Levy Foundation, founded in 2004, is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the estate of Leon Levy, an investor with a longstanding commitment to philanthropy. The Foundation’s overarching goal is to support scholarship at the highest level, ultimately advancing knowledge and improving the lives of individuals and society at large.
