Monoculture Lament for the Pollinators

A park, I found a park!

Envisioning a morning walk among the shade to greet the birds and buzzing friends, I set forth.

To find the patina of nature, the bare minimum to check the boxes

Uniform green lawn, uniform plantings of adolescent trees along the road, rocks without snuggling flowers*

A sign saying “Do not touch the grass”

Families watch their children throw a pigskin

And kick soccer balls

Adults plink plastic spheres over pickleball nets

“Where are the walking trails?” I ask a fellow pedestrian.

“Sorry! Don’t know,” she calls.

We walk along the perfect paved road

Next to parking lots with freshly sealed asphalt.

This feels too much like deboned chicken breasts in the grocery store - removed from blood and guts and life.

I watch one small yellow butterfly look for a place to land.**

Seeing the world.

*The only reason there are bare circles of earth around the trees and rocks is because someone sprayed poison so nothing would grow. Unfortunately, this visual reinforces a false narrative of what nature is and man’s role in nature. It is a clear example of “human supremacy” (Thank you Arkan Lushwala from his latest book The Spirit of the Glacier Speaks)

And yes, I get it, from a financial standpoint it is probably cheaper to spray something than to hire people to weed poison ivy off of trees - but for those people who don’t think about what they are looking at the unintentional lesson is that this is the way nature should look, should behave, should follow the dictates of our conveniences to the detriment of biodiversity and earth health.

**If you are not familiar with the Pollinator Pathway/Corridor initiatives - now is a good time. As the Hudson Valley Pollinator Project states, “The essence of the problem is insect starvation.”

You can push to have your local municipal park plant a pollinator habitat - or join your own garden to the project.