From: | Joe Neal (joeneal@uark.edu) |
Back in 2000 I saw a Red-tailed Hawk nest in the stout fork of a big old prairie-era post oak. The oak was part of a small forest developed on former Tallgrass Prairie habitat well marked by impressive prairie mounds. There were Northern Bobwhites in the surrounding fields and Painted Buntings in the shrublands. Visitors to northwest Arkansas and us locals are invariably drawn to this area now because it is Steel Creek Crossing in the burgeoning retail-entertainment district in the vicinity of NW Arkansas Mall.
There was a big battle over these old prairie oaks in 2000, begun when Mary Lightheart climbed what she called the “mother tree” and vowed to stay until development plans were dropped. She kept her vow to stay, but eventually law enforcement brought her down and arrested others who tried to take her place.
I was out Christmas shopping in that area yesterday. What remains of that old oak barren is a handful of fantastic mature native trees and prairie mounds between two popular retailers, Kohl’s and Target . Kohl’s refused to make any compromise with their store building plans at the time. Folks who supported Lightheart handed out bumper stickers after the fracas that read, “I will never shop at Kohl’s.” Trash from the parking lots collects there, mute witness to what happens when a worthwhile fight is lost.
I haven’t seen one of those “I’ll never shop…” adorning a bumper in a few years, so I guess this too has now largely faded. Just from an ecological viewpoint, the little remnant is worth a visit because it is a perfect example of a unique Ozark habitat once much more widespread in northwestern Arkansas. There’s plenty of parking nearby, too.
But I am a historian and a birder, and when I’m out that way, I always stop and look at the oaks and the mounds, remembering that big hawk nest, the bobwhites, and buntings. Bobwhites and Painted Buntings are two of our native birds whose declines are thought by some to be a mystery. Stop by the little woodlot. The reason for decline, at least in our western Arkansas neck-of-the-woods, is palpable.
I also notice that while I did, and do, support the notion of boycotting environmental travesty, like others here, I move on. It’s like being push out to sea by the rip tide. The people who work in Kohl’s and Target look and likely feel just like you & I.
The trash out there in the pitiful prairie remnant got me to thinking yesterday about whether or not any of it was worthwhile, even from the get go. I think Lightheart and the others were right to protest , even if against overwhelming odds. I don’t mean to celebrate “tilting at windmills.” But how else will native birds and their habitats receive protection when they are jeopardized? How else will politicians and developers be put on notice that their decisions have real consequences, and not just the positives that get headlines.
I agree with the reputed views of a Populist agitator from the 19th century, who supposedly told a bunch of angry Kansans, "What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell." I suppose that’s what Lightheart had in mind when she climbed her mother tree – less shopping, more protecting.
Posts
2 comments:
Joe--there's still an "I'll never shop at Kohl's" bumper sticker on my truck and will only come off when it peels off from nature's influences. ALL social movements in this nation have required someone to climb up in a tree, boycott abusers, face fire hoses, march, burn bras, hold hunger strikes, organize, or get matters to a vote of some kind. Mary's attention to those trees may have gone a long way in yanking public attention to face what happens to a town and its natural resources and values when its leaders ignore and circumvent laws, which were fairly and squarely put on the books by citizen effort "working within the system." We are told we are supposed to work within or change the system instead of relying on rebellion in the streets----or trees, as the case may be. But when our leaders preform their own kind of anarchy on our laws and democratic process, citizens have to either roll over or rebel. There's been a change in local attitude toward our natural environmental values, albeit slight, and I think we can justifiably credit Mary Lightheart and her 3 weeks on a tree limb with making us stop and look inwardly at those values, hardly a tilted windmill level of accomplishment. Also----- Those of us fighting to save those trees told Target and Kohls over and over to build their buildings 2 stories high to save land, and put the tree grove in the center as space where everyone could go and enjoy sitting under those magnificent trees in a park-like surrounding. They ignored us and cut most of the trees and now the survivors stand uncared for (ice broken limbs still dangling and littered around as you said). Then, after the tree cutting mayor lost re-election, the next mayor sold off the Wilson Springs seasonal wetland as if its only value was for more pavement! It seemed nothing was learned about the values of how land functions.....all pretty depressing and maddening situations ------ as you and all those birds in Wilson Springs know full well.------
We can always do better and as a species I wish we'd hurry up and start in a more enlightened direction.
These are great thoughts to ponder, Joe and Fran. I think that all of us are wondering whether or not we make a difference on the landscape. It seems so inconsequential at times; yet, we do have several really great restored or preserved sites in northwest Arkansas, thanks to people like you who care and understand the importance of remnant post oak savannahs and red tailed hawks.
Post a Comment