Oh Bummer! People are so disconnected from the earth.
Sorry. :(

AAARRRGH. so hate when that happens.

It made me sad to see this spring the field next to the hotel I work at get bulldozed, just to put in another stupid hotel of which our small city really doesn't need. All those pretty wildflowers - gone. Along with all of the butterflies and birds I enjoyed watching on my breaks. By March of next year I get to look at more asphalt and concrete. Sigh.

Karen

It was either last year or 2 years ago, in an area where I release female moths, I spotted a BST laying egg after egg in a field of QAL. I remember I got at least one egg but it would have taken MANY hours to go through all the QAL. So, my plan was to come back X days later and look for the more easily spotted caterpillars. When I went back, the field had been mowed.

I have posted before how my township drives me nuts because they expect large fields to be mowed like they are somebody's front yard. Only ongoing farm uses avoid this stupidity.

I know the feeling very well because every spring and summer the town crews mow or spray herbicides on the fennel and QAL that grows in the parks and lots around town. It especially irritates me where the areas are otherwise neglected. One time I asked the person spraying why it would make sense to spray wild flowers or plants in places where one would expect to find such things in the first place. He had no answer but I soon realized that he was not personally responsible for the decision to do it and I just had to let it go. But it is very frustrating and makes me feel so helpless while I watch such wanton destruction of natural things. Murray

Oh, no! They mow the beautiful A. lanceolatas every year just before the seed pods ripens - drives me crazy!!
'Reminds me that I need to check them out - one year they're going to leave them alone long enough to ripen.
Sherry

Maybe with all the budget cuts going on, we should suggest that stopping some of the mowing might be a painless way to cut costs--might decrease pollution along the way, too.

Martha

The green lawn mentality is so stupid! Wish we could unite and inform the WHOLE country that more wild flowers, less mowing and spraying is good for all of us.

I happen to like that our state plants wildflowers on the right of ways of highways and doesn't mow until after seed production. It's fantastic to drive the Turner Turnpike in the early summer and see all the beautiful milkweeds, penstemons, delphiniums, and other wildflowers in bloom. When Monarch Teacher Network came to Broken Arrow last year in June, they had made the drive up from Texas. They were very impressed with the miles of Asclepias tuberosa in bloom.

I have had to locate wild stands of milkweed for feeding my early spring Monarchs. Recently, I found a fantastic stand of viridis on a beautiful open meadow of wildflowers about 3 miles from my house. There are no fences keeping me out. Yesterday I noticed a new sign up on the corner "60 acres available commercial". Made me want to go home and throw up. Wish I had the money to buy up that land. I also wish there were local groups that could pool money to buy some of the land to keep it natural, kind of like an urban conservation group.

Sandy