More on Minto (of Minto-Brown fame)

Image via WikipediaEnrich and Beautify the Earth

From the book titled John Minto: Man of Courage 1822-1915:

John returned jubilant from the 1849 gold strike with enough 'yellow dirt' to make it possible to buy the finest in rare fruits and flowers to plant on his acreage. When a Methodist minister came upon him three years later as he was loosening the graft bands of a crabapple tree on which he had worked six varieties of popular apples and he was singing at his work, the minister remarked: "You seem happy, Brother John." Yes, Brother Roberts," he answered. "Just now I would not swap with Adam before his fall," the preacher made no reply.

"Perhaps he thought me irreverent," John remarked later, "but I had no such thought, and that had been the experience of my life when working to enrich and beautify the earth."

John Minto lived to 93 and he was a poet who wrote the following to fill a need for songs for the Salem Grange:

A GRANGER'S LOVE SONG

Come to the grange with me, Love
Come to the farm with me
Where the birds are singing and the flowers are springing
And life is happy and free.

To thee, Ceres her bounties shall bring, love
Promona and Flore shall give
Of their fruits and their flowers, to crown the hours
Of the life on the farm thou shalt live.

While the bread-grain is in the field, Love
And the fuel is cut from the grove,
Neither cold nor want shall thy night dreams haunt;
Only plenty and comfort and love.

We'll build our home by the hill, Love,
Whence the spring to the brooket flows;
On the gentle slope where the lambklins play
In the scent of the sweet wild rose.

In the labors, joys and cares of the grange, Love
In the shelter and shade of the grove,
Life's duties we'll meet in companionship sweet,
And there rest from our labours in love.

John Minto was an innovator in agriculture with some firsts in grafting fruit trees and sheep ranching, and served prominently in the Oregon Legislature.

Speaking of the Grange, don't forget tonight's dance to benefit the Grange!

Late but in earnest! Help rid Minto-Brown of invasive Scotch Broom

Sorry for the late posting, but here's a great effort worthy of support.

Finestkind civic activism for Minto Brown tomorrow and Halloween

Some of the beautiful vistas likely to disappear soon. Image by voodooangel via Flickr

Some locals are doing what the City of Salem should have done well before ramming through the hasty sale of easements in Minto-Brown Island Park:

CARE ABOUT MINTO BROWN? Then make sure to let the City know what kind of plantings you’d like to see in the recently designated federal easement areas in the park.

Salem residents have an opportunity to influence the design of these two 100-acre parcels, including proportions of open space to woodland, and best locations for different kinds of vegetation (trees, shrubs, grasses), at these meetings:

Phase I (initial input from the public) – Tuesday, Oct. 27, 6-8 Leslie Middle School, repeated Saturday, Oct. 31, 10-1 Pringle Park Community Hall.

Phase II (presentation of two or three alternatives, opportunity for public feedback) – Thursday, Nov. 12, 6-8 Leslie Middle School, repeated Saturday, Nov. 14, 10-1 Pringle Park Community Hall.

Phase III (presentation of draft of final plan, opportunity for public feedback) – Tuesday, Nov. 24, 4-7 p.m., Salem Conference Center.

Join us Saturday October 24, or Saturday, October 31, for a walking tour to the easement areas, with an optional visit to areas previously restored under similar programs. We’ll meet in the Picnic Shelter parking lot and begin the tours at 2 p.m. Allow about an hour and a half. By the end of the tour you will know which sections of the park are included in the easement areas, and be prepared to offer your recommendations to the City at the public meetings.

Drop-ins are fine, but if you have questions ahead of time, or can let us know you’re coming, please email us at bassett3 [at symbol] juno.com or call us at 503-364-6806. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please pass this info on to them. Thanks.

Gigantic brass ones award for Salem

Image by Jim Frazier via Flickr

After trying (and very nearly succeeding) to sneak through the sale of easements that will permanently bar agriculture from 200 acres of rich farmland in Minto-Brown Island Park and then ramming it through at the last minute over the objections of a diverse group of citizens and the city's own parks and recreation advisory board, NOW the city is all about public outreach.

In other words, it's like telling a homeowner "We really want your input, would you prefer that we bulldoze your house or use it as a fire department training site?"

Truly shameful. With the price of brass so high, you'd think Salem wouldn't have such a money problem.

All,

The status of the Minto Brown Park Restoration Project as of October 22, 2009 is as follows:
• On August 24, 2009, the Mayor and City Council agreed to enter into the easement agreement.
• A survey of the property to define boundaries and setbacks is underway and should be completed soon.
• The current pumpkin crop is scheduled to be harvested during the last week of October.
• Once the harvest is complete, the area will be planted with a cover crop of barley. This will prevent erosion during the winter and provide food for the annual geese population.
• The consultant will begin planting plan soon. We are seeking input from Salem residents.

Reminder that the public involvement meetings to participate in helping develop the planting plan for the Minto Brown Park Restoration Project begin next week. An invitation is attached to this email.

The meetings will take place in three phases as described below. Child-friendly activities will be available at all meetings.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Leslie Middle School, 3850 Pringle Road SE or
Saturday, October 31, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pringle Hall, 606 Church Street SE.

These initial meetings are to introduce Vigil-Agrimis, a local design firm that specializes in planning, analysis, and design of water and natural resources projects. Vigil-Agrimis will be working with Natural Resources Conservation Service, the City of Salem and the community to develop the restoration plan for this project. We would also like to take this opportunity to solicit your input regarding some overall planting concepts. Our goal is to work toward restoring the floodplain to a more natural condition and your feedback regarding the level of open space and types of natural habitat is an important part of the development process.

The second set of meetings scheduled on:
Thursday, November 12, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Leslie Middle School, 3850 Pringle Road SE or
Saturday, November 14, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pringle Hall, 606 Church Street SE.

At these meetings, two or three alternatives based on the input received at the first meetings will be presented. Attendees will have the opportunity to provide input on these alternatives.

A final meeting is scheduled on November 24, 2009, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Salem Conference Center, 200 Commercial Street SE. It is anticipated that the consultant will present a first draft of the design (50 percent completed) to the public and solicit feedback.

We look forward to seeing you at the public meetings.

For more information go to http://www.cityofsalem.net/Residents/Parks/Pages/Minto-BrownIslandParkEasementProposal.aspx or contact Mike Gotterba or Nitin Joshi at 503-588-6211.

"Let Them Eat Natural Restoration Areas"

Five members of the Salem City Council tonight sold us out for cash money tonight, approving a move by the feds to put natural restoration "emergency flood control" easements on 200 acres of unique farmland within the Salem city limits, land that has been cropped for more than a century and that has never cost the federal government a single dollar in flood damage claims.

UPDATE: A reader asks a good question, now that self-styled environmentalists have blessed ignoring master plans and blowing off public involvement when it suits them: "Wonder how knee-jerk supporters of this easement would have felt about the need for public involvement and planning if the proposal had been for $800K in exchange for two separate motocross playgrounds in the middle of the park?" Of course they'll respond, "That's different," but actually the only difference is that one proposal they like and one would horrify them.

IRONY UPDATE: Here's text of a proclamation issued the same night the council voted to forever bar community gardens and all other forms of agriculture from 200 acres of prime land in Minto-Brown Park:

National Community Gardening Week 2009 Proclamation

WHEREAS, one of the most frequent and best-supported recommendations by health experts is that Americans need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables; and

WHEREAS, Salem is located in the very heart of one of the most fertile and productive river valleys anywhere on earth, and our soils and growing climate are among the most favorable in the world; and

WHEREAS, fruits and vegetables grown in the soils and climate of Salem provide unmatched flavor and superior nutrition; and

WHEREAS, community gardens help community members help themselves by providing both a fulfilling, enjoyable avocation and an affordable source of superior nutrition without the need for fossil fuels in transport; and

WHEREAS, gardening together in community helps foster stronger ties between diverse community groups, promotes healthy eating habits for a lifetime, and helps support efforts to eradicate hunger in Oregon; and

WHEREAS, the United States Secretary of Agriculture has recognized and encouraged all Americans to celebrate this week as National Community Gardening Week;

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet Taylor, Mayor of the City of Salem, proclaim National Community Gardening Week, August 23-29, 2009.

I encourage all residents to take advantage of Salem's community gardens and gardening resources and thank the many Master Gardener volunteers, neighborhood community garden coordinators, and the Marion Polk Food Share Community Gardening program making our community healthier, happier, and more beautiful.

“National Community Gardening Week”
DATED this 24th day of August, 2009

As Salem prepares to forever ban agriculture from 200 acres of rich farmland

Salem's commitment to ending hunger --- one sticker deep at most. Image by ginnerobot via Flickr

Before leaping into the fantasy solutions proposed below (skyscraper soilless gardens anyone?), shouldn't we try at least preserving some of the land we have been farming successfully for 150 years?

Funny how many people in Salem seem to think that hunger elsewhere won't mean problems here. Apparently for these people, Salem exists in a perfect bubble, untethered to a world where more than a billion people go hungry regularly -- with billions more expected soon, including millions of Americans and thousands of Oregonians.

Just as we're recognizing how difficult feeding a world of 7 billion is, Salem is proposing to knock out 200 acres of prime, well-situated close-in farmland. Because, to some of the well-fed, "natural re$toration" dollars count more than other peoples' hunger, even when those hungry people are right here in Salem.

If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist. This means that the majority of people could soon be without enough food or water. . . .

The floods and droughts that have come with climate change are wreaking havoc on traditional farmland. Three recent floods (in 1993, 2007 and 2008) cost the United States billions of dollars in lost crops, with even more devastating losses in topsoil. Changes in rain patterns and temperature could diminish India's agricultural output by 30 percent by the end of the century.

What's more, population increases will soon cause our farmers to run out of land. The amount of arable land per person decreased from about an acre in 1970 to roughly half an acre in 2000 and is projected to decline to about a third of an acre by 2050, according to the United Nations. With billions more people on the way, before we know it the traditional soil-based farming model developed over the last 12,000 years will no longer be a sustainable option.

Irrigation now claims some 70 percent of the fresh water that we use. After applying this water to crops, the excess agricultural runoff, contaminated with silt, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, is unfit for reuse. The developed world must find new agricultural approaches before the world's hungriest come knocking on its door for a glass of clean water and a plate of disease-free rice and beans. . . .

Imagine Minto's Ag Acreage as the Super Farm-to-School Lunch Site

This is the kind of food kids need, and that kids love if they get to help grow it. Image via Wikipedia

There's widespread recognition that the school lunch program reflects the worst of our country's agricultural policies, which are firmly in control of Big Agribusiness and operate to the detriment of all eaters, especially the most vulnerable ones, children. Schools are used as a dumping ground for surplus goods more than as a place where children might learn healthy eating habits.

Lost in the rush to grab a tiny few stimulus dollars under an "emergency flood control" easement by locking away 200 acres of rich, prime farmland in Minto Brown Island Park is any effort to see the possibilities for addressing numerous social ills by keeping the land as agricultural land. Not least among these is the chance to convert that acreage into community gardens and even into a unique opportunity to promote better nutrition in schoolchildren by giving over as much acreage as needed to growing food for school breakfast/lunch programs year-round (especially in summer when many poor children suffer a huge drop in nutrition).

The ag land on Minto can become the centerpiece of a revitalized curriculum that teaches kids (and the adults who care for them) not only about the benefits of good food but also how to grow that food in a way that preserves and protects the environment, while building up kids' sense of themselves as people who have a purpose and who contribute to the wellbeing of their families. The loss of useful chores -- tending the kitchen gardens, caring for hens -- is one of the saddest things about childhood today, where children are trapped in an auto-dominated world that imprisons them in their cul-de-sacs with nothing useful to do. Sure, there's make work chores, but they don't build a sense of agency and responsibility the way meaningful contributions do.

UPDATE: A must-read book is available from the Salem Public Library and our local booksellers: "This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader" by Joan Dye Gussow. (Chelsea Green Press). This is outstanding, wily writing, with lots of tempting recipes, leading the reader gently, painlessly, but inexorably into thinking deeply about food and where it is grown and the costs of our obliviousness to those things. Blurb by Barbara Kingsolver, whom many consider a Goddess of Food Writing:

The most important book I've read in a long while. Full of hope, kindness, and arresting wisdom, it iwill serve as a valuable guide to anyone who wants to live more thoughtfully on the only planet that feeds us.

Temporary reprieve on Minto

The five members attending the City Council meeting tonight unanimously voted not to accept the federal easement proposal to lock up 200 acres of cultivated land in Minto Brown Island Park.

Naturally this means that we can expect staff to honor the wisdom of Mark Twain by proving him an acute observer of human nature when he observed that "Having lost our bearings, we redoubled our efforts." Having had to concede repeatedly that the public involvement for this idea was lousy, the plan is to ram through a motion to reconsider and pass the thing with no further public involvement in two weeks, should the feds permit yet another extension (which, if they do, only shows that they want this much more than the people of Salem do).

In other words, the betting is that staff and some of the Council members will push hard to have the Council to entertain a motion for reconsideration in two weeks, meaning that the 5-0 vote to reject the easement only means that the people advocating for the easement want a do-over ....

Tonight city staff admitted that the contract for the easement gives total control of the parkland's future to the feds, that none of the sweet whispers about working with the city are in writing, and that the whole emergency floodplain easement program is not really a good fit for a public park. Nonetheless, expect a full-court press to get this thing jammed through at the last minute, public sentiment be damned.

Word of the Day: Continued

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better." George Orwell (Eric Blair) Image by jovike via Flickr

Since the current Minto-Brown Park Master Plan --- the one that the Salem City Council adopted in 1995 after lengthy public involvement and participation -- expressly states that agriculture within the park is appropriate and should be continued, let's see what that word means:

con·tin·ue (kn-tny)

v. con·tin·ued, con·tin·u·ing, con·tin·ues

v.intr.

1. To go on with a particular action or in a particular condition; persist.

2. To exist over a prolonged period; last.

3. To remain in the same state, capacity, or place: She continued as mayor for a second term.

4. To go on after an interruption; resume: The negotiations continued after a break for lunch.

v.tr.

1. To carry forward; persist in: The police will continue their investigation.

2. To carry further in time, space, or development; extend.

3. To cause to remain or last; retain.

4. To carry on after an interruption; resume.

5. Law To postpone or adjourn.

And since the proposal to sell off control of 200 acres of that land would reduce acreage being farmed in the park by about 80%, let's consider that whether that could possibly satisfy the meaning of continue:

re·duce (r-ds, -dys)

v. re·duced, re·duc·ing, re·duc·es

v.tr.

1. To bring down, as in extent, amount, or degree; diminish. See Synonyms at decrease.

2. To bring to a humbler, weaker, difficult, or forced state or condition; especially:

a. To gain control of; conquer: "a design to reduce them under absolute despotism" (Declaration of Independence).

b. To subject to destruction: Enemy bombers reduced the city to rubble.

c. To weaken bodily: was reduced almost to emaciation.

d. To sap the spirit or mental energy of.

e. To compel to desperate acts: The Depression reduced many to begging on street corners.

f. To lower in rank or grade. See Synonyms at demote.

g. To powder or pulverize.

h. To thin (paint) with a solvent.

3. To lower the price of: The store has drastically reduced winter coats.

4. To put in order or arrange systematically.

5. To separate into orderly components by analysis.

6. Chemistry

a. To decrease the valence of (an atom) by adding electrons.

b. To remove oxygen from (a compound).

c. To add hydrogen to (a compound).

d. To change to a metallic state by removing nonmetallic constituents; smelt.

7. Mathematics To simplify the form of (an expression, such as a fraction) without changing the value.

8. Medicine To restore (a fractured or displaced body part) to a normal condition or position.

v.intr.

1. To become diminished.

2. To lose weight, as by dieting.

3. Biology To undergo meiosis.

Nope. As they say on Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other." In this case, it's more like NONE of these things is like ANY of the others.

Thus, when people try to argue that it's ok to prohibit growing food on four-fifths of the land now being farmed in the park because ag wouldn't be barred from 100% of the cropland, they are trying to twist the meaning of the words, which is generally a dead giveaway to something not being kosher.

There are some good arguments for the easement deal, and more good arguments against it. One of the most compelling arguments against this deal at this time is that it completely guts the park Master Plan, which is essentially the guidance we the people of Salem gave to city government for how to care for our treasured possession, Minto-Brown Island Park. If the City Council ignores the plain, clear language of the master plan, they are essentially saying that no one can rely on any of the planning documents that the city prepares, even the ones specifically adopted by the council.

Ask yourself -- if the shoe were on the other foot and the city staff were alarmed by some proposed action of the state or federal government, would the city say "Hey, no need to follow any plans developed with our participation ... go ahead and do what you think is best."

Imagine the ag land on Minto helping keep us healthy and fed

Image via Wikipedia

One of the main arguments against kicking agriculture off 200 acres on Minto Brown is that we would do so today -- forever -- in the face of a huge and fast-growing mountain of evidence that all is not well with our food systems, which have basically become entirely dependent on a copious supply of fossil fuels and a finance system that selects for megafarms that require megaprofits -- meaning producing the cheapest possible food and shipping it a long way.

Here's a great article from todays NY Times calling for a rebirth of the agricultural extension service to help people all over the country select and breed plant varieties appropriate for their particularly place.

If we reject this "Rush, rush!" deal and think carefully, we can, if we wish, restore hundreds of acres on Minto Brown Island AND preserve its rich heritage as an agricultural place; we can convert those acres, one at a time if need be, to organic production and community gardens, with community supported agriculture operations to find which perennial vegetables, to name just one example, are most suitable for this area. We can, in short, act with caution, rather than making an irrevocable commitment of land to a particular (if not particularly well-fleshed out) use.

None of this is possible under the terms of the proposed easement. Instead, just as we will be needing MORE local food for more people, we're talking about reducing ag acreage that is perfectly situated on land we already own.

Words alone not enough to describe the proposal to sell off local control of Minto-Brown Park

Not much time left -- spread the word! Help wake people up to this strange, quietly handled deal.

Even if you like the underlying proposal, you should be appalled that the city would enter a deal of this magnitude with so little (essentially no) public involvement and awareness.

I guarantee you that if the Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board had recommended the staff proposal, the city staff would be trumpeting that at the top of every page and the start of every presentation. Instead, the SPRAB --- citizen-volunteers appointed by the city council --- unanimously voted to recommend that the city NOT sell these easements. So, poof, it's like it never happened and city staff never mentions the SPRAB anymore.

One of the most troubling things is that several citizens who support the easements idea are dismissing the importance of the Minto-Brown Park Master Plan, which calls for agriculture to be continued in the park. This is at the same time that the city has been working to revise the Parks Master Plan since 2008. Why bother? Why spend staff time and effort on master plans if we ignore them the instant someone offers us some money, even when they want to make us do something that is nowhere mentioned in the master plan?

Don't these citizens they realize how crucial it is for environmental advocates to insist that Salem respect and follow adopted master plans? Without that, it's "anything goes" in terms of development proposals.

Indeed, several easement advocates are arguing that we should ignore the plan because "the master plan is just a plan" and is somehow not a serious commitment or binding obligation. But if so, then citizens really need to know: What other plans has the City adopted that it doesn't really intend to follow? Do we have to start asking Council to make a "pinkie promise" to follow a master plan that they adopt when they're actually planning on taking it seriously? Is the city willing to post a list of all the current council-adopted plans that it doesn't intend to be bound by?

Along those lines, city staff claims that booting agriculture off 80% of the farmed land in the park still complies with the master plan (which specifically notes that agriculture is a benefit to the park and should be continued) because locking up 80% of the farmed acreage is less than 100%, so agriculture IS continuing. Ho ho!

If Council buys that argument and sells off these easements then we should "continue" the Public Works Department likewise by reducing its budget by 80%. After all, if city staff don't see a difference between "continuing" something and reducing it by 80% then we've definitely got an opportunity for some real savings there.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

It's time to slow down and stop this fast-track rush to sell off control of land in Minto-Brown Park before the public is well-informed about the stakes. Image by c_smith2k000 via Flickr

One of the most maddening things about the city's proposal to sell off control of 200 acres of precious, rich agricultural land on Minto-Brown Island is the way that the whole thing, from the very start, seems to have been designed to be accomplished without any public awareness and certainly without significant public involvement.

The original proposal was put onto the City Council's CONSENT agenda -- the one that gets no discussion! And until a citizen told the City Council that the project wasn't even listed on the City website stimulus projects page, it was missing in action there as well.

And today, August 7, here are the "major topics" listed on the city website (list below). Notice anything that's conspicuous by its absence? That's right -- there's a proposal to radically change the use of a beloved city park by permanently ceding control of 200 acres of it to the federal government -- in direct contradiction to the current park master plan (which calls for agriculture to be continued, not reduced by 80%) that is nowhere listed as a "major topic" on the city website.

By way of contrast with the way Salem has handled this radical change in activity in Minto, let's compare the process that the city makes you go through to get a residential parking zone established on your street (to prevent high school kids and downtown employees from parking in front of your house all day):

To get your street added to the 90-minute-only parking zone, the citizen petitioner is required to knock on the door and notify 100% --- each and every one --- of the affected neighbors, even if they already have a no parking zone in front of their house. THEN the citizen is required to submit the petition to the Neighborhood Association for their endorsement. If the citizen fails to contact _all_ the affected residences (and to get 3/4 support from them all), or to go through the neighborhood association, no action will be taken.

Is the permanent loss of control of 200 acres of a unique public park really less significant than getting a 90-minute parking zone established in a residential neighborhood? If not, then why has the public not been given at least the same level of notice and opportunity to comment?

Topic: Keeping of Urban Chickens

Topic: Neighborhood Services Program

Topic: Sign Code Amendments

Topic: Shopping Cart Ordinance

Topic: Police Department Facility Task Force

Topic: Salem River Crossing Project (3rd Bridge)

Topic: Parks & Recreation System Master Plan

Department: Public Works

Contact: Mark Becktel, Parks & Transportation Services Manager, 503-588-6211 mbecktel@cityofsalem.net

Topic: Minto Island Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge

Keep Minto-Brown Island Park under local control!

Image by voodooangel via Flickr

Did you know...?

Next Monday, August 10^th, Salem City Council will vote whether to sell control of almost 200 acres of Minto Brown Island Park to a federal agency (USDA) for over $800,000 in federal stimulus funds. Here are four questions we should hear the answers to before the City Council votes.

1) Why didn't the City tell us this was happening?

No notice has been posted in the Park to tell users that the City is about to make a decision to permanently change the use of 200 acres of City owned land.

The City Council approved applying for the stimulus funds on April 6, 2009, but has not posted a public notice in the Park. Four months is plenty of time for public notice, but Salem officials chose not to post any notices for park users. Before the City Council decides to sell off local control of parkland, they should post public notices at park entrances. Why hasn't the City told park users they might change the use of 200 acres?

There are 19 Neighborhood Associations in Salem. More than a dozen were not given the chance to hear about this proposal before the August 10 vote. Why didn't city officials tell the other Neighborhood Associations about this proposal?

2) Why don't they tell us what the $800K will be used for?

The proposal before the City Council does not specify how the money will be spent. The City budget for this year has been approved and the use of this funding would be unrestricted. City staff have said that the "staff recommendation" is to use the funds to benefit parks, but have not provided details and this is not part of the proposal on Monday.

3) Why don't we know what will happen to that acreage?

Federal agencies will decide the management plan for the almost 200 acres and the City will be required to follow it. One requirement of the easement is that paved bike paths and trails will never be allowed in the easement areas. The City will not know what is in the management plan before the vote and the federal agencies can change the plan at any time in the future.

There is lots of talk about unfunded federal mandates. The City now controls the property. If the City sells the easement, then it no longer has local control. Once the stimulus funding is gone, then there will be federal control and no funding.

4) How will Salem afford to maintain the easement area forever?

The USDA will only pay to maintain the easement areas for 3 years. For the next 3, 33, and 333 years, Salem will have to pay for upkeep. Today, the land is open space maintained at no cost to the City. How can Salem afford to maintain this land in the future? Salem's own council-appointed Parks and Recreation Advisory Board reviewed the idea and voted unanimously against approving the easement. The Parks Board found the deal was not in Salem's long-term interest.

Concerned? You have options before the City Council votes. Call or write the Mayor, City Council and City Manager (Citycouncil@cityofsalem.net or 503-588-6159). And you can speak out at the City Council meeting on Monday, August 10. The meeting begins at 6:30 and your last opportunity for public comment will be near the beginning of the agenda. Thank you!

Another reason not to reduce agriculture in Minto Brown Island Park

There's no reason that agriculture and enjoyment of the park should be viewed as conflicting. Image by Mr.Thomas via Flickr

Nick Kristof, a native Oregonian, has an outstanding column today about "nature deficit disorder" -- the increasing tyranny of electronic doodads that dominate kids' lives and the paucity of contact with the natural world.

How to Lick a Slug

While backpacking here with my 11-year-old daughter, I kept thinking of something tragic: so few kids these days know what happens when you lick a big yellow banana slug.

My daughter and I were recuperating in a (banana slug-infested) wilderness from a surfeit of civilization. On our second day on the Pacific Crest Trail, we were exhausted after nearly 20 miles of hiking, our feet ached, and ravenous mosquitoes were persecuting us. Dusk was falling, but no formal campsite was within miles.

So we set out a groundsheet and our sleeping bags on the soft grass of a ridge, so that the winds would blow the mosquitoes away. Our dog looked aghast (“Ugh, where’s my bed?!”), but sulkily curled up beside us. As far as we could tell, there was no other hiker within a half-day’s journey in any direction.

We debated whether to put up our light tarp to protect us from rain. “No need,” I advised my daughter patronizingly. “There’s zero chance it’ll rain. And it’ll be more fun to be able to look up at shooting stars.”

It was, until we awoke at 4 a.m. to a freezing drizzle.

The rain not only punctured the doctrine of Paternal Infallibility but also offered one of nature’s dazzlingly important lessons in perspective, reminding us that we’re just tenants — and ones without much sway.

Such time in the wilderness is part of our family’s summer ritual, a time to hit the “reset” switch and escape deadlines and BlackBerrys. We spend the time fretting instead about blisters, river crossings and rain, and the experiences offer us lessons on inner peace and life’s meaning — cheap and effective therapy, without the couch.

All this comes to mind because for most of us in the industrialized world, nature is a rarer and rarer part of our lives. Children for 1,000 generations grew up exploring fields, itching with poison oak and discovering the hard way what a wasp nest looks like. That’s no longer true.

Paul, a fourth grader in San Diego, put it this way: “I like to play indoors better, ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” Paul was quoted in a thoughtful book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods,” that argued that baby boomers “may constitute the last generation of Americans to share an intimate, familial attachment to the land and water.”

Only 2 percent of American households now live on farms, compared with 40 percent in 1900. Suburban childhood that once meant catching snakes in fields now means sanitized video play dates scheduled a week in advance. One study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990 the radius from the house in which they were allowed to roam freely was only one-ninth as great as it had been in 1970.

A British study found that children could more easily identify Japanese cartoon characters like Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than they could native animals and plants, like otter, oak and beetle.

Mr. Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he links it to increases in depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder. I don’t know about all that, although his book does cite a study indicating that watching fish lowers blood pressure significantly. (That’s how to cut health costs: hand out goldfish instead of heart medicine!)

One problem may be that the American environmental movement has focused so much on preserving nature that it has neglected to do enough to preserve a constituency for nature. It’s important not only to save forests, but also to promote camping, hiking, bouldering and white-water rafting so that people care about saving those forests.

One sign of trouble: the number of visits to America’s national parks has been slipping for more than a decade. Likewise, Europe and Canada have both done an excellent job of building networks of long-distance hiking trails, while the U.S. has trouble maintaining the trails it has.

One of our family’s annual backpacks is the 40-mile Timberline Trail circuit around Mount Hood, crossing snowfields and dazzling alpine fields of flowers. In years when we’re particularly addled, we hike it as many as three times. But a washout almost three years ago left part of this gorgeous trail — completed in the 1930s — officially closed, and unofficially rather difficult to get by. Here’s a spectacular trail that was built in the last depression, and we can’t even sustain it.

So let’s protect nature, yes, but let’s also maintain trails, restore the Forest Service and support programs that get young people rained on in the woods. Let’s acknowledge that getting kids awed by nature is as important as getting them reading.

Oh, and the slug? Time was, most kids knew that if you licked the underside of a banana slug, your tongue went numb. Better that than have them numb their senses staying cooped up inside.

Well, if we're worried about nature deficit, doesn't it make sense to reduce the agricultural acreage and increase the "restored" naturescape in the park? No, for a number of reasons.

First, agriculture is natural. Agriculture is how humanity earns its living, just like herons fish and eat frogs and slugs eat plants. For all intents and purposes, every calorie we eat derives from farming, directly (plant foods) or indirectly (animals nourished on crops). When you reduce this basic and essential human activity in the park, you reduce the park to a monoculture just like the suburban sprawl that surrounds this gem. People whose conception of nature means "no agriculture" have an impoverished view of nature and man's place in it -- they see man as outside of nature, able to observe it at a distance, rather than a being whose every molecule is part of the web of life, whose every sip of water has been shared by innumerable other creatures. Children (and adults) LOVE to watch agriculture when it is done at a human scale, as it is in Minto Brown Island Park -- and it can be even more so if we preserve the right to use that land for farming (the way the farmers who deeded the land to the City thought it would be preserved).

Second, most of the park already is "natural" in the sense of being undeveloped (no structures or permanent habitations). Of the 900 acres in the park, the 200 acres proposed to be locked away forever include some of the highest, driest ground in the park, two small parcels on either side of a legacy cherry grove -- a place where chemical sprays were never used and, therefore, a place easily converted to organic production. Oddly, the most regularly flooded ag land in the park is not amongst the acres proposed for this "conservation."

Third, the idea that simply "restoring" acreage to plantings similar to those found in undisturbed parcels is inviting is wrong. The most inviting and appealing acreage in the park ARE the agricultural lands and the boundaries surrounding them. In nature, boundaries (ocean/land, forest/field, prairie/lake, reef/sea, etc.) are the most interesting and biologically richest places of all. Replant the 200 acres into black cottonwoods and you will soon have a place that few children will go to, even if their parents let them.

The Minto Brown Island Park Master Plan calls for agriculture to be continued -- not reduced, and for conversion to organic agriculture. We have a unique opportunity to increase the natural diversity in our park in a way that puts humans into the natural world, rather than defining nature as a place where humans are excluded or limited to defined paths. If we want to have "naturally literate" future generations, we need to have places where they can see humans being part of nature, rather than just observing it through a windshield or on park display signs.

UPDATE: August Salem Monthly has a small story on this.