Construction, concerts, and conservation

Good lord, it is hard to drive around this town lately. Are there any roads without construction going on? Between all the utility work and road resurfacing, it’s hard to get anywhere without running into orange cones and, in several places, flaggers managing one-lane closures. 

It’s going to get worse, too. Especially when they start working on Roosevelt.

It’s infuriatingly awesome. 

Infuriating in that it slows traffic down. Causes delays. And driving that close to equipment and workers stresses me out. 

But it’s also awesome that there is so much improvement happening to our infrastructure. High speed internet going in all over the place. New, smoother (hopefully) streets. And whatever other improvements all that construction work will bring about. It’s making our communities better, one infuriating project at a time.

But as they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Neither was Burlington, or Des Moines County. And those streets aren’t going to pave themselves. Our alternative is go back to complaining about rough roads, slow internet, and whatever else we’ve been complaining about that all those construction workers are addressing right now with all those one lane roads and detours. 

What does any of this have to do with conservation or the outdoors, you may be asking. Admittedly, when I first set out writing this, not a lot. I had several places to drive this morning and everywhere I went, I encountered construction, and I wanted to vent.

But the more I thought about it, the more I saw parallels with the natural world.

Ever notice how few fireflies there are now compared to when we were kids? 

Have you heard that the monarch butterfly is being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act?

Now, we could gripe and moan about these things, or we can do something about them. But let’s not fool ourselves. Like roads and internet, making things better will take time (and investment) and getting there can be kind of messy. 

Like populations of many other insects, monarch and firefly populations are declining and a big culprit is habitat loss. We know what to do about that. Create more habitat. But the process can be less than pretty. For example, at Des Moines County Conservation, we’ve been working hard to reduce our mowing and replace many mowed areas with pollinator habitat. One spot in which we’re in the process of doing that is Chautauqua Park east of Mediapolis. While we see increased plant diversity, increased use by wildlife (including fireflies), and a pollinator plot in progress, many others see an “abandoned” park that’s been allowed to grow up into “weeds.”

My ongoing attempt to convert the road ditch into pollinator habitat.

It’s conservation’s version of a bridge project. Only this “construction” takes years, not months. And not everyone agrees that turning the park into a pollinator plot is the best use of the site. 

There’s also an effort by a group of locals to launch a “homegrown national park” initiative, a la Douglas Tallamy’s book, Nature’s Best Hope. This would create small areas of native habitat (read: not mowed) in yards and public right of ways. Other communities, like our fellow river town Dubuque, already have such programs in place. They call theirs “mowing to monarchs” and the county invests real dollars in creating these “pocket prairies,” of which there are nearly 300 throughout their county now.

But again, it’s a 3+ year establishment timeline. And the process can be a lot of work and not look the greatest in the process. Much like road construction.

And then there’s the investment side of things. Since I assume this column is not the only thing you read in the papers, you’ve probably noticed that our cities and county aren’t exactly flush with cash. And with the changes being handed down from the state, an overall push to continually reduce taxes, and things not exactly getting cheaper, there’s little likelihood of the financial picture changing much anytime soon. 

Considering the “nonessential” nature of parks and conservation programs (elected leaders’ words, not mine), don’t expect pollinator gardening to take precedence over bridges. So we parks people will just have to think outside the box…right onto the stage.

Which brings me to the inaugural Burlington River Days event that was held on the riverfront a couple weeks ago. Complete with three days of concerts and outdoor-themed events, the entire festival served as a fundraiser for the local Partners for Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit that invests in local parks and outdoor recreation initiatives. 

Could the event have been better? Certainly. But the turnout far exceeded expectations for the first year and there’s a lot of enthusiasm (and big dreams) for future events. Maybe in coming years we’ll have big-name performers on the stage. But like road construction, these things take time.

Until then, see you in line at the one-lane.