Almost every national conservation group is digging trenches, readying the bunkers and putting on the battle gear for the anticipated environmental apocalypse ahead, and by the way, if any of the political rhetoric is even a bit true its well they should be very ready but I for one am excited about the coming year and look forward to the job we will all have ahead of us.
Now, some of you might be saying, “Don, have you been standing out in the milkweed patch too long? Are you one lens short of a binocular?” Well, not yet anyway, but what I do know for sure is that there is no doubt that the environmental movement in this country is in dire need of a resurgence, and there is no better way to make that happen than to start at the local level.
If we are to have any lasting environmental changes, they will have to come from the ground up, all of us, the people in the communities that care. We stand up and do not wait for anyone or anything when we know what the right thing to do is concerning the environment.
My seemingly irrational optimism for the future of our natural world is not just wishful thinking. Rather, it is based on the environmental activities that are happening all around us, every day, in just about every town and community.
From the new community Butterfly Gardens, pollinator projects and nest box projects to save the bees to leaving the leaves and planting natives, the environmental movement is alive and well in a place that can’t be corrupted by big business or compromised and bought and sold on social media. That is, in our small towns and communities, where people that no matter their socioeconomic status or who they may vote for, or not vote for, understand that clean air and water are a right not a privilege, and that seeing a backyard Cardinal or a garden Butterfly is something special that they want their children and grandchildren to see and appreciate forever.
We can no longer sit back and wait, hope and pray that a political candidate will come along and have the environment on their agenda, and become our magical savior so we can sit back and have it all done for us. In fact, I have not seen the “ENVIRONMENT” taken seriously by any candidate from any party in recent years. It seems it is just swept aside and viewed as a liability as an election issue. It will be up to us to put it back up at the top of any candidate’s election platform from now on, and that will start right in our hometowns.
We will without a doubt have the opportunity to accomplish great things together when it comes to the environment in the coming year, from saving the Monarch to protecting migratory birds and from preserving more wildlife habitat to creating more biodiversity in the open space we already have.
I won’t pretend this will be easy because it never is and it never has been, and I won’t promise that we will be able to accomplish this without a fight, maybe the toughest one we have had in 50 years. But we will do this because we already have set the grassroots groundwork in every community. From schools, garden clubs, Scout groups, nature centers and community gardens we are there, all doing what we need to do.
This coming year go out on a nature walk, invite a neighbor and show them the wonders of the natural world that are all around them. Show them first-hand what they can lose. Volunteer at a Butterfly Garden. Plant milkweed in your backyard. Tell your community leaders to do the same. Let’s all step it up. We can do this together, there is no doubt in my mind.
Happy New Year! See you in the Meadowlands.
Don
