Last spring, following the resurfacing of the parking lot at Alex UMC, parking islands were offered up for adoption. A group of us adopted one with the goal of establishing a small 12x24' chunk of prairie. We purchased the dirt, some mulch and about $200 worth of native prairie plants. They were on the small side so that we could get a fuller garden - as opposed to using up our budget on larger plants ready to bloom. Granted this would take a bit longer, but when you're doing a project like this, patience is important. Last summer was hot and dry here and we spent a number of nights weeding (the soil we got wasn't weed free!) and hauling water to keep the seedlings going. By the fall it was beginning to take shape and we even had some blooms during the course of the summer.
Fast forward to May 2008. In the course of a week, our island was nuked with Round Up by another church member and this past weekend during the trustee-sponsored cleanup day it was picked clean by some of the crew who had no idea the island had been adopted. Complete disaster. All that remains is some prairie sage and that's starting to sag from the chemical.
Now, as Lay Leader I'm in the predicament of trying to keep the peace between some of the island's sponsors (which if you recall included my family) and those that did the damage. I'm disturbed by the incident, particularly that someone thinks they can indiscriminately spray chemicals all over, but what can we really do?
Keepin' the Peace - I hope,
Jeff
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