After the storm: How collaboration is driving the Arboretum’s restoration
When Drake Fowler returned to the North Carolina Arboretum after Hurricane Helene, the extent of the damage broke his heart.
“We lost 10,000 trees over 80 acres,” he said.
However, as the initial shock of grief subsided, Fowler, the arboretum’s executive director, considered how to find opportunity amid destruction.
NC Arboretum names new director
University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans this week appointed Drake Fowler as the new executive director of The North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.
Arboretum leader to lead landscape architecture association
Drake Fowler, deputy executive director at The North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, has been named president of the N.C. Chapter of the American Association of Landscape Architect. He will serve a one-year term leading the organization.
Fowler joined the Arboretum during 2015 as chief operations officer and chief financial officer and assumed his current post in 2019. He has been instrumental in the recent $2 million renovation and expansion of parking; overseeing the design and implementation of the $1.2 Willow Pond project that is a stormwater management, education and conservation initiative that protects the rare mole salamander; and programming of future improvements at the Arboretum’s Parkway entrance.
