Between Yesterday and Tomorrow

I knew it was too good to be true, an aromatic autumn. And it was. On Wednesday, the scent of Shorewood changed. I received this message from Carol K:

“Workers from a private company (KEI) were out at 10:00 am this morning applying weed killer to ALL grassy areas of River Park (west end of Edgewood Ave.). Soccer fields included. I was cutting through River Park from the bike trail and could smell it in the air… Apparently it is one of two applications that the village of Shorewood has hired the contractor to do in a year. One of them being in September (the middle of soccer season!). Soccer practices are scheduled there every weekday (including today!!!), with games on Saturdays and Sundays. Not good for our kids, our families, our dogs…Can you help get the word out?”

I got the word out to my Grass Roots list and included the Email for the Dept of Public Works: dpw@villageofshorewood.org in case someone was unhappy about inhaling poison and wanted to complain. I then received messages about pesticide signs in Atwater Park and on Wilson Drive and a strong smell of pesticides along the bike path, and immediately sent another Email to Grass Roots and to the DPW which included a link to the Beyond Pesticides risk list.

I also included this article: (Beyond Pesticides, September 27, 2007) In a call for sweeping reform in Canada, the Ontario Liberal Party, lead by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, has called for the banning ban of all cosmetic use of pesticides across the province as part of their commitment to healthier Ontario families. Twenty five municipalities, covering about 30 per cent of the province, have already introduced local bans or restrictions on the cosmetic use of pesticides, those typically used on lawns and landscapes. Just as the Ontario Liberals replaced a patchwork of local bylaws when they banned smoking provincewide, this new pesticide and herbicide ban would create a single, comprehensive law for all Ontario communities. “There is growing concern about the potential harmful effects of these products on human health,” Mr. McGuinty said. “When there is such widespread concern, why would we take a chance with our health, and our children’s health, just for the sake of a few dandelions, or a bit of crabgrass?”

Shorewood is one big construction project, gas pipe replacement, Oakland Avenue replacement, perhaps even replacement of the ugly planters. WE Energies has been digging all summer, then the dirt left on sidewalks turns to mud when it rains. Our friend Paul, who has had a hip replacement and then a replacement of the replacement, almost had a third replacement when he slipped and fell, thanks to the muddy walks. And I've had some close calls.

For me, there’s also flower replacement. I called WE Energies about 7 or 8 times to make sure that they would not ruin what flowers I’d managed to save from bindweed and that they would not put a single grass seed nor any chemical fertilizers on our parkway. They were great about the first request, even painted a note about the flowers on the pavement, and were careful not to dig till I had moved all the plants. But not too long after they’d put in fresh topsoil, they covered every empty spot with grass seed, not just the topsoil, but along the edges where I had mulched to kill all plants and between the flowers. Though I’ve mentioned it to them a few times, it’s still there. In fact the grass has already begun to grow. After all my years of pulling weeds and grass, WE Energies has given me a fresh crop. The upside for me: it’s a reminder of how boring and useless grass really is. The blurb about GIMME GREEN (in my last blog) had this information: Lawns carpet 50,000 square miles in the United States, requiring more than 30,000 tons of pesticides each year and 200 gallons of water a day per American.

Grass isn’t a food crop, it’s not even a beauty crop, it’s merely a carpet crop. Think about that next time you use that daily 200 gallons of precious water for grass in a world where millions are hungry and thirsty.

If you're concerned about the environment
About our land, air, water
You might want to take a trip
South of Shorewood's border
To the Urban Ecology Center tomorrow night to see a movie about the history of lawns:
THURSDAY, SEPT 20: GIMME GREEN, 6:30 - 8 p.m., For adults
Suggested donation $5 (Members - $2) Childcare available $6/child (Members - $4/child)
Call to register, 964-8505.
Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. Whether in the sun-parched deserts of the American southwest or the humid climates of the eastern seaboard, the residential landscape is the same. Lawns carpet 50,000 square miles in the United States, requiring more than 30,000 tons of pesticides each year and 200 gallons of water a day per American. Every day, 5,000 acres in America are converted to lawns. By examining the social, commercial, and environmental pressures surrounding the green-grass aesthetic, we begin to understand how a non-edible, resource-intensive plant has become our nation's largest irrigated crop.

An engaging blend of gravity and levity, this documentary short follows a lawn of the month contest in a small suburb and a city code enforcement officer as he writes citations for unkempt lawns. It examines the inner-workings of a desert sod farm as well as an artificial turf factory. It questions how lawn pesticides are applied and what their affects may be on our health. Through an unforgettable exploration of one of our most recognizable national symbols, Gimme Green will ensure you never look at grass the same way again.

Mosquitos. Is there anyone around Milwaukee who didn’t mutter that word last week? And more than once. And more than around Milwaukee, probably in the whole Midwest.

After all the rain, it was suddenly dry, and I had to water the garden. Someone had detached the sprinkler, and before I could reattach it, mosquitos drove me into the house. Still, an hour later I braved a walk to Atwater Park, strolled down the S-shaped path through mosquito clouds and overheard conversations, noted others’ mosquito mutterings, reveled in the osier, sumac, turkey foot grasses (which may not be turkey foot), New England asters, purple thistle, clusters of goldenrod, even in the hollyhocks. A friend, walking up as I walked down, said to me, “Isn’t it beautiful!”

Maybe she was referring to the weather, but I responded, “Yes, I love the plantings on the bluff,” and waved at the hodgepodge of color and the dragonflies hovering like mini-helicopters, and the red-winged blackbirds. One of them had ruffled my hair last month as it swooped past me, and of course I thought of Alfred Hitchcock.

“Some people want to bring native plants back to the bluff,” she said.
“What! This is the most beautiful spot in Shorewood! Why don’t they plant native plants in those clunky planters that they moved here from Oakland Avenue?” We both laughed at the ugliness of the flowers, carefully arranged to look artificial, that are standing like robots overlooking Atwater Beach.

The following day I repeated the conversation to a friend who replied, “When my wife saw those planters at Atwater Beach, she was so upset she wanted to roll them down the bluff!”

“Actually it’s possible. You can take the path all the way down without using any steps.”

“I know. I scoped it out.”

Well, we have a lot to mutter about, and we have a lot to admire. We should be glad that the bluff bursts willy-nilly with wildflowers, that the clunky planters are clumped together on the overlook and not on Oakland Avenue, and that maybe the mosquitos froze last night.