CAPE ELIZABETH – The work of nearly 400 volunteers got a grand unveiling Saturday, when Cliffside officially came to life as the first of 15 planned garden sites for the new Arboretum at Fort William Park.

The $375,000 landscaping overhaul is just the first note in what park faithful hope will become a flowing chorus of color splashed across Cape Elizabeth’s crown jewel.

“It was a spectacular day,” said Stephen Bates, president of the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit organization sponsoring the arboretum project. “I have no idea what the financial results were, but the enthusiasm results were very high. It was a very good turnout and, from anecdotal feedback, everyone was just ecstatic.”

Bates did note that among the $25 tickets for the Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour, $1,000 worth were purchased by an anonymous donor to be given to “people who might not ordinarily go to an event like this.”

The foundation was created in 2000 to establish an endowment for park maintenance. That goal has yet to bear fruit, Bates said – the town budgeted $288,000 for maintenance last year, not counting capital improvements or the cost to run Portland Head Light – but the foundation strives to do as much as it can with the Cliffside clearing of invasive species seen as a primary goal.

Created for coastal defense in 1899, Fort Williams will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a town-owned park in 2014. But during that time, much of the 90-acre site became overgrown with sumac, bittersweet, black swallowwort and Japanese knotwood.

The irony, said Lynn Shaffer, chairwoman of the Arboretum Master Plan Committee, is that most of the visitors who flock to Fort Williams each year have no idea that the tangled brush along the Cliffside Path, which seems to add so much to the rustic charm of the site, is actually harmful.

Pulling those plants and trees began in earnest in the fall of 2010, with a slight road bump in the spring of 2011, when concern arose that the clearing might cost the endangered New England cottontail rabbit a newfound habitat. Work was put on hold while state wildlife officials tried to trap and relocate any rabbits in the park, but only one was ever found, and it got away.

In time, the tangled overgrowth gave way to reveal what was once Battery Hobart and its “awe-inspiring” views of Casco Bay. Volunteers created a grass amphitheater while Linkel Construction of Topsham has replanted the site with high-bush blueberries, huckleberry and juniper.

“The intent was not to create a highly manicured garden, but to recover the land,” said Kathryn Bacastow, who has led the arboretum efforts.

Creating clear views for the first time in decades has created some concerns, however. At its most recent meeting, the Fort Williams Advisory Commission approved a $16,000 design for a railing to run along Cliffside, between the path and the precipitous drop-off to the ocean below.

Although commission Chairman Bill Nickerson acknowledges there has never been a fall in 40 years that anyone is aware of, commission members are worried about what could happen in the case of a misstep.

“There are many places along Cliffwalk where someone could take a header and they’d be done for,” said Donald Head, noting the wide walking trails was, until 1992, no more than “a goat path.”

“There are going to be so many more people there now than there ever where in the past,” he said.

Once Cliffwalk is complete, other planned arboretum spots include a nut grove, a fruits region and a children’s garden.

Full rehabilitation, to include installation of stone retaining walls, steps and pavers, as well as replanting of native species, is projected to top $3.5 million.

“One of the things we are increasingly dealing with is revenue generation,” said Nickerson.

Cape Elizabeth has never tracked traffic through the park, but Nickerson said “the number that’s out there” is roughly 1 million visitors per year.

However, after two no votes from residents on parking fees, the commission has turned to other sources, most visibly last year by allowing food vendors to cater to park customers for the first time. This year, the park has begun charging a $40 “bus fee” to tour groups.

Recently, the Town Council accepted a new master plan for the park, prepared by Mitchell and Associates Landscape Architects, of Portland. Last updated in 2003, the new plan addresses many pedestrian and traffic issues, especially at the Ship Cove parking area, were a turn-around area will be built.

A new picnic area will soon be built in that area and the commission is drafting new fees for the use of this area, as well as making adjustments to various rental sites and the rate for commercial photography of the lighthouse.

Nickerson said that new fee schedule will likely go before the Town Council in November.

Meanwhile, Bates said, a study is looking into the feasibility of unearthing one of the old gun stations, Battery Blair, that is buried.

“There are multiple projects that could take place, along with those that are already under way,” said Bates. “In general, we see an emerging enthusiasm from people for what they are seeing, and an excitement at actual improvements in the park.”

Garden aficionados from around the region enjoyed beautiful weather and even more beautiful private summer gardens opened to the public on Saturday for the Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour. The self-guided event was a fundraiser for the Arboretum at Fort Williams project. Wayne and Lois Gauthier, visitors from Naples, Fla., walk a winding path inside the Cliffside site.Photos by Rich Obrey
The Maine Home + Design Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour draws visitors to some exclusive properties in town to benefit The Arboretum at Ft. Williams Park project.
A honey bee sets off from a Shasta daisy in pursuit of more pollen at a garden on Old Ocean House Road.
The Maine Home + Design Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour draws visitors to some exclusive properties in town to benefit The Arboretum at Ft. Williams Park project.
The Maine Home + Design Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour draws visitors to some exclusive properties in town to benefit The Arboretum at Fort Williams Park project.
The Maine Home + Design Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour draws visitors to some exclusive properties in town to benefit The Arboretum at Fort Williams Park project.
Vivian Findlay, a volunteer for the garden tour, takes a photo of the garden at 1 Lydon Lane.
Pretty flowers in the garden at Breakwater Farm, which looks out at Ram Island.Photos by Rich Obrey
Susan Johnston of Cape Elizabeth, left, and her daughter, Tracy Zager of Portland, enjoy the view in both directions from a double garden settee at Breakwater Farm, overlooking Ram Island.