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Dozens of Lawrence neighborhood members visited the remnant prairie behind Prairie Park Nature Heart Monday night for a therapeutic gathering, following the town’s use of herbicide spray that’s killing hundreds of thousands of wildflowers.

Metropolis workers members mentioned Monday that every one the individuals who knew tips on how to look after the prairie — which has grown in place for hundreds of years and by no means been plowed — have retired or resigned previously few years, and there was no agency plan in place to share that information with newer workers. (Learn extra of the background within the articles at this hyperlink.)

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Dan Wildcat, longtime Lawrence resident and professor at Haskell Indian Nations College, mentioned Monday’s occasion was about starting to heal the harm that had been accomplished to the prairie and the ecosystem we’re all a part of, and the “harm that a few of you are feeling; the ache that a few of you are feeling.”

He inspired folks to take a stroll across the prairie, on the paths that have been already seen with the intention to keep away from additional harm.

“Make peace with this place as you stroll round this prairie,” Wildcat mentioned.

Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Some colourful flowers and vegetation stood out among the many useless ones round them, Monday, Could 8, 2023.

A number of folks spoke, sang or learn poetry.

Jimmy Beason II, from the Osage Nation and an Eagle Clan member, is a professor at Haskell’s Indigenous Research Division.

Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Jimmy Beason II

Beason spoke about how he was all the time advised that when one thing dies, whether or not it’s human, animal or flowers, there’s all the time going to be one thing to appropriate that stability. He mentioned the therapeutic gathering was wanted to assist restore that stability.

“It’s not simply right here that these sorts of issues occur,” he mentioned. “It’s all around the world. And we’re all the time having to deal with this type of power that destroys and makes it laborious for everybody.”

Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Courtney Masterson

Courtney Masterson, ecologist and government director of Native Lands Restoration Collaborative, mentioned a few of “our strongest plant associates” are taking the herbicide spray a bit of bit higher than others, and the grasses might be OK, however some vegetation won’t get better.

She mentioned she thinks the wild indigo, bastard toadflax and rattlesnake grasp are taking the harm the toughest.

“All of those vegetation have many hundreds of years of relationships with folks,” she mentioned. “And this motion ought to wake us all as much as the nice power that we supply, that we possess as stewards of this land, how shortly we will make a mistake that may trigger a substantial amount of hurt to our plant associates and the animals that rely on them.”

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Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Rev. Shelley Web page

Rev. Shelley Web page, minister for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lawrence, mentioned she lives “simply steps away from this historic prairie.” She mentioned it was a sacred house; an ecosystem with complexities far past our figuring out.

“What was destroyed can’t be changed because it was,” she mentioned. “We’ll work to save lots of what we will … and nurture those which might be can nonetheless make it. However what was right here can’t be replicated.”

She then sang a slight variation of “Keepers of the Earth,” by Joyce Poley:

“We’re blessed by ev’ry prairie,

Ev’ry prairie makes us complete.

With its riches and its magnificence,

Ev’ry prairie feeds our soul.”

Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Ken Lassman

Ken Lassman, ecological author and and curator of the Kaw Valley Almanac, mentioned that we as people are hardwired to look after others, and that we will be healed by serving to others who’re sick.

He mentioned the prairie is sick, and it wants love, therapeutic and a spotlight.

“This can be a time the place we will develop our circle of therapeutic from our households and our associates to the bigger kin of family and friends that lay earlier than us proper right here,” Lassman mentioned. “… I personally have been healed by this area many occasions in my life. It has introduced love, it has introduced magnificence, it has introduced issues that I didn’t know I wanted.”

Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions

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Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Dan Wildcat Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Ron Courageous Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Jimmy Beason II Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Bridgett Chapin Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions Molly Adams/Lawrence Occasions

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Molly Adams (she/her), a contributor to The Lawrence Occasions, is a Haskell alum with a ardour for photojournalism. She strives to create genuine photographs that painting the true lives of Lawrence neighborhood members.

She will be reached at molly (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com, and her public work will be discovered on her web site. Take a look at extra of her work for the Occasions right here.

Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founding father of The Lawrence Occasions, will be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Learn extra of her work for the Occasions right here. Take a look at her workers bio right here.

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