From her place at the helm of Boston Harbor Now, lifelong environmentalist Kathy Abbott will be charting a course for the future of our region’s waterfront. The new nonprofit was created earlier this year from the merger of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance, which Abbott helped found, and the Boston Harbor Association, and she says its goal is to help steward the development along the 40-mile stretch of the Harborwalk trail and 30 harbor islands that stretch beyond it. Abbott, 59, spoke with Globe reporter Janelle Nanos about her history with the harbor and her plans for what’s next.

1Abbott’s ties to the water run deep. She spent her teen years living on Cape Cod, which was a dream of her father’s.

“I grew up going to the south side of Cape Cod during summers [as] a kid, and we moved down there during the first big recession in ’71. I went to high school in Falmouth. I’m definitely attuned to the water. I remember one of my pseudo-grandfather types growing up telling me once, ‘Kathy, you were born with one foot in a boat,’ and I thought that meant my mother literally had one foot in a boat when I came out.’’

2Abbott’s career has come full circle with her new role — she first started working for the Harbor Islands as an intern.

“When I was 19, I took an internship on the Boston Harbor Islands through Mass Audubon and was an island manager for the summer. I lived on ­Gallops Island, which is now closed. It was 10 days on and four days off, and I lived in a little pup tent. Then next summer I was the supervisor, and I had a little Zodiac and used to buzz around the harbor. One of the things I love about being back [at Boston Harbor Now] is the smell of salt water wafting up State Street.’’

3After helping to establish the Boston Harbor Alliance, Abbott worked at other area nonprofits, including the Trustees of Reservations and the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston. She said her time away has given her newfound appreciation for the waterfront’s promise, particularly when the right partners are involved.

“My stint as the president and CEO [of] the Boston Harbor Island Alliance when we started the national park was about partnerships and collaborations. People thought it would never work, and in fact it worked phenomenally. Coming back literally 20 years later and seeing what this group has managed to do by leveraging the public and private sector is really inspiring.

“I was looking at our stats on Wikipedia just yesterday. We have 48-plus square miles of land [in Boston] and we have 41 square miles of water. It’s primarily the harbor; that’s a huge public resource that I don’t think most of us think about as belonging to us. That’s really what we’re trying to do. I think we are poised to be in the forefront nationally and internationally in how we think about and continue to develop our waterfront.

“I hope that we can find ways to effectively work with the city and the state and the private developers on the planning side of things and work with those folks to think bigger. Each individual developer is making significant developments. How do we weave them together for a bigger impact?’’

4When she’s not out on the water, you’ll probably find Abbott in a garden.

“I’m a big gardener — my time at Tower Hill was not an accident. I’m a big grower of fruits and vegetables and flowers. That’s a passion, and in doing that work I really realized the role that plants have played throughout my career and my life. They’re fundamental to our survival; we tend not to think about plants. My time at the botanic garden was a phenomenal place and experience, and I hope to bring that plant focus to the park service.’’

5Abbott has been a foster parent and devotes much of her volunteer efforts to working with kids.

“Bringing kids down to the harbor and out to the islands was always a passion. I’ve been a tutor and mentor and Big Sister — there’s nothing cooler. I remember one eighth-grader named Star climbing into the Boston Light and looking at the city and the islands, and realizing that they all belonged to her. This is what we want to create in Boston. That’s the core of what’s motivated me.’’

Janelle Nanos can be reached at janelle.nanos@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @janellenanos.