Tall-grass fear in Benton County: another reason not to approve unneeded housing projects

Failed subdivisions, bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures, loss of employment and world affairs have combined to waste millions of taxpayer dollars.
Benton County officials are wasting it in a way many of us wouldn't expect. They are using public employees and equipment to mow private property.
This is simply wrong without a vote of the taxpayers, one would think.
However, the most obvious thing about it is that it is negating one of the few environmental BENEFITS of a crashing economy and high fuel prices.
Historically, the land on which most of these subdivisions are being built was tall-grass prairie. Native tall-grass prairie is a wonderful protector of the quality of air and water and soil and wildlife habitat. Those subdivisions weren't built on the native soil, which is being replaced by red dirt and other non-organic dirt to level and fill the formerly abundant wetland areas and to provide firm foundations for concrete slabs on which to build these obviously unnecessary houses and condos and such.
But at least allowing whatever vegetation manages to spring up on that abused land to grow is a way to make "lemonade out of the rotten lemons" for the time being.
Aspen Ridge, the failed condominium project in south Fayetteville that epitomizes bad environmental choices such as removing mature trees and tall grass and other native plants and even the rich soil itself, nonetheless has provided a bit of habitat for many species of easily noticeable wildlife.
In the fall of 2007, various species of flowering plants, particularly late-blooming asters, provided nectaring for southward-migrating monarch butterflies and local pollinators. Many birds found a bit of seed there. Canada geese found acceptable grazing opportunity in the winter and two pairs actually nested on the almost moonscaped area. Deer graze a bit as they cross the abandoned property as they walk to the Town Branch for water during dry times. But they get most of their food and lie down to sleep on fully vegetated World Peace Wetland Prairie and the adjacent Pinnacle Foods Corporation tall-grass prairie land as well as still-vegetated parts of nearby Rochier Hill. Rabbits have reappeared and venture out to snack on whatever they can find to eat. They retreat to thickets on World Peace Wetland Prairie or into the small tree-preservation area or the stream corridor through Aspen Ridge when approached by people or raptors. But they do use the mix of vegetation on the open area.
Some people who drive through the area or live nearby have complained about the area being "grown up." But many people walk there to enjoy the birds and bees and other wildlife and enjoy the wildflowers that struggle to grow in the poor soil.
Far too soon, such places will have people and cars and cats and dogs and constantly mowed grass and very little wildlife and very few native plants. But each day we protect even mediocre habitat counts for the creatures that depend on it and each tax dollar wasted hurts our currently shaky economy and threatens our ability to provide important, necessary public services.
At least one neighbor of the Aspen Ridge project has taken matters into his own hands, pulling up nonnative varieties of thistles to protect his own property from their potential encroachments. All thistles benefit birds and butterflies and bees. But three nonnative species are considered invasive and undesirable by state and federal agencies.
So it would be possible for people who don't like the vegetation on those vacant lots to mow it themselves rather than demand that public officials waste everyone's tax money to do it.
However, if you suggest that, the people bothered by the volunteer vegetation have a simple answer: "The city approved this and they can take the responsibility. We didn't ask for the growth."
Problem is, the city is all of us, regardless of who is in the hot seat where approval of projects is done. Even if we objected to their decisions before they were made, we have to face the problems. And those who didn't speak up ahead of time, still must accept some of the responsibility and tolerate the irritation and anger created by the current situation and the new round of noise and dust and traffic that will be caused by the process still to come.

To read the full story on the Benton County mowing debacle, please use the link below:

 Tall-grass fear wasting public money

Cutting through the jungle
By Jeff Mores Staff Writer // jeffm@nwanews.com
Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/64256

BENTON COUNTY — There was a day when park-department employees with the various cities in Benton County mowed parks and other public areas during the summer months. And there was plenty of that to keep them busy.
For the past two years — and more than ever this spring and summer — those same employees have found themselves mowing residential yards and vacant lots. For some, that has meant working Saturdays — which in many cases had been a day off prior to 2006. Even that hasn’t necessarily translated into keeping up with the rapidly growing list of homes — even entire subdivisions — that have turned into jungles rather than manicured lawns.
Benton County enjoyed a recordbreaking building boom. But any code-enforcement official, park employee or city planner knows that the growing number of foreclosures, bankruptcies and those simply walking away from their homes has created quite a nightmare.
“ There’s a process code enforcement works through — but when property owners don’t respond or we run into a wall trying to get some kind of action taken, parks ends up getting a list of properties to go out and mow, ” said Roy Lovell, Bentonville’s park foreman. “ Those lists are getting long and plenty. A couple of years ago, we were only having to deal with this six to 12 times a year. Since the middle of June, we’ve already had to mow more than 100 properties. ”
No matter which Benton County city is referred to, if it has park employees, odds are they will be mowing residential property through the end of November. Even then, the winter weather will only send lawns and weeds into dormancy for a couple of months — during which time code-enforcement and park employees will scramble to catch up with other work they’ve had to shuffle to the back burner. When the ground thaws, they know they’ll be right back to it again, even though residential mowing and maintenance are not in any of their job descriptions.
“What’s going on with the housing market nationally has complicated our jobs dramatically,” said Rogers code-enforcement supervisor Jeff David, who described himself as being more of a detective than anything else over the past couple of years."

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