Transplant endangered Duluth plants!

Judy Gibbs Jun 18, 2011 17 Comments

Can anyone help this Eagle Scout? He is attempting to move plants out of a gorgeous old growth forest that is to be bulldozed for a building on the corner of Rice Lake Road and Pecan this Sunday. He writes a good description below.

Hello Everyone,

I am in desperate need of volunteers for my Eagle Scout project this Sunday. My project involves taking native plants and trees out Webb Woods, and moving them to new locations so they will be saved from the bulldozer.

I have been working with the Miller Dwan Foundation, which is building its new Amberwing on the site and with Mr. D. J. and Mr. Gabler. The people at The Miller Dwan Foundation could not give me a time to work on my project until they were sure of the exact place for building. They got the area staked out this week, and informed me last night that I have until next Wednesday to get my project done. I am sorry for the short notice of the project, and that I plan on doing the project on Sunday (weather will be bad on Saturday), which is Father’s Day, but it will allow for a great time to do something special for the community with your father.

I will start the project at 10 a.m. on Sunday and will be there for as long as it takes to get the project done. Please come when you can, and bring work gloves, shovels, and long clothes, because we will be working in the woods.

Also, if you have buckets and wheelbarrows, bring these as well. The woods are located at the corner of Pecan Avenue and Rice Lake Road, but we would like for you to park on Baylis Street and Wildwood Drive.

I will provide lunch and snacks for all workers. Please e-mail me ASAP if you can come so I can provide enough food. Also, you can use the volunteering hours for Community Service hours.

Thank you,

Jake Kmiech
jake.kmiech @ gmail.com
(218)-499-4214


Events, Outdoors

17 Comments

Bret

about 13 years ago 

Great idea!  Thanks for doing this!

BeastOfBurden

about 13 years ago 

He fails to mention exactly what endangered plants he proposes to move.  Also, if I'm not mistaken, isn't it illegal for:

a.) Miller Dwan to "bulldoze" an area containing "endangered" plants?

b.) anyone to remove and/or possess an "endangered" plant?

I'm going to assume that the Ms. Gibbs is using "endangered" as an alarmist adjective rather than a technical legal term, since the letter writer did not use the same terminology.  That, and there are no documented "endangered species" in this particular wooded area ... that is, until someone transplants some in this location.

Dave P

about 13 years ago 

Seems to me that anything about to be bulldozed qualifies as endangered. People read what they want to.

Judy Gibbs

about 13 years ago 

I agree ... plants being bulldozed are endangered.

BeastOfBurden

about 13 years ago 

I find your use of the word "endangered" to be a little misleading, Ms. Gibbs.  Especially since the letter writer never used the word himself.  And if the Amberwing (a building that will help people) is built in the same manner as the Solway Hospice project, there will be very little "bulldozing," as there were measures taken to minimize the impact on the surrounding space.  You can clearly see the this evidence on the map provided.  

Also, you'd think an Eagle Scout would be more apt to help, you know, people.  But I guess plants take precedent.  And a final FYI: That land doesn't qualify as "old-growth forest."

webb photos

about 13 years ago 



For anyone wanting to see Webb Woods before the (de)construction, I went out and got some photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64289280@N07/

MIldred

about 13 years ago 

Thanks BeastOfBurden, could you possibly be more annoying? 

You're making a big deal about the headline - not even the content of the note or the event. Then, you couldn't be more dismissive about the project, for some reason.

Obviously lots of land is going to be bulldozed to build a new building - duh - where do you think  the building sits, 40 feet up in the air?

Your lame statement about 'plants take precedent' shows plenty of ignorance about helping nature's diversity benefits humans.

Judy Gibbs

about 13 years ago 

I proudly use my real name when I post.

BeastOfBurden

about 13 years ago 

I don't.  Mostly because many liberals (not all) are unable to separate politics and the rest of life, and feel the need to cause financial, political and reputational harm to those who dare cross them.

Timk

about 13 years ago 

Yeah, Beast- nothing screams "liberal" like an Eagle Scout. Take it over to the Troll Zone please.

hbh1

about 13 years ago 

So you're worried about your reputation? Seems a well-earned concern.

Barrett Chase

about 13 years ago 

Sounds like BeastOfBurden prefers the cloak of darkness.

wildgoose

about 13 years ago 

Where are the plants going?  

I have a few small patches in Wild Goose Manor that are too hillside-ey even for me and it seems vaguely unsafe to mow them, not to mention being a lot of work to maintain.  I want to leave them "wild" preferably with native plants.  And I have vague notions of doing a butterfly garden since I'd heard monarch's are very threatened by loss of habitat, meaning there are apparently many  ENDANGERED plants around here.  Including (it sounds like) the ones near this development.

Judy Gibbs

about 13 years ago 

I am not sure where he is putting the plants. His email is in the post...you might want to contact him directly.

Jim

about 13 years ago 

Beast has a perfectly valid point. Ms. Gibbs took a fairly innocuous story and put an enviro-alarmist twist on it. Old growth? Really? Endangered? I'm sure the fine folks at Miller Dwan would love to hear that someone is labeling the land they are building on as potentially needing environmental protection due to an old growth forest and endangered plant species being threatened. I'm surprised sacred burial ground or spotted owl didn't crop up in that description somewhere.

Jim

about 13 years ago 

PS- good for the Scout. Regardless if it's working with people or doing something he has a passion for, he's getting his hands dirty. I applaud his efforts.

Paul Lundgren

about 13 years ago 

Jim is correct, although perhaps he went over the top with his rhetoric, as usual.

As obnoxious as BeastOfBurden was in making his point, I do think it would be a good idea to better distinguish between legitimate endangered species of plants and individual plants that are endangered. The same thing for legitimate old-growth forests and regular forests that are nice and kind of old. 

That isn't to say this post was intentionally misleading, but it could have been clearer.

BeastOfBurden's suggestion that our Eagle Scout friend has no interest in helping people because he did a good deed for some plants is worse than misleading, though, it's utterly asinine.

But just because half of the argument is imbecilic and the source doesn't share a real name doesn't mean the general point is without merit.

If we want it to mean anything that certain plant species are endangered and certain forests are old growth, it would be a good idea to make those distinctions clear. Because if every plant is endangered and every forest is old growth, the rationale for protecting any of it begins to get flimsy.

In this case, no one was trying to stop the building project or argue about how much bulldozing was going to happen. It was just a nice kid trying to get some help saving some plants. If the relaying of the message was somewhat misleading, that's a shame, but there seems no reason for any hostility about this -- unless the weather has you down or something.

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