ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE WEST MILFORD MESSENGER REGARDING THE CLOSING OF THE GARDENS
I write to you today with a heavy heart as Volunteers work to close down the Native Medicinal Plant Garden forever.
This thriving adopt-a-spot garden at the triangle between Warwick Turnpike and Clinton Road has had thousands of hours invested in it by hundreds of loving hands over the last 15 years. This location was the site of the original one-room schoolhouse for the town and over the years has been used and abused, and then abandoned. Eagle Scout projects have tried to heal it or at least smooth it out, but the dumping and neglect over the years was still evident underneath each project. Glass, asphalt, rocks, oil from trucks, and poison ivy were the main residents when our group took over in 2008. Within three years of our volunteer efforts, it was transformed into a peaceful and blossoming native medicinal plant garden that visitors could not only relax in and enjoy, but also learn about the medicinal benefits of native local flora while preserving the local habitat and these precious plants for generations to come.
We want to thank all of the volunteers that helped to start, nurture and expand the garden over the years including Robin Rose-Bennet, Karen Longo, John Harrison, Karl & Norma Stehle, Tim & Karen Dalton, Renee Allessio, David Watson-Hallowell and the hundreds of apprentices, master gardeners, local residents, learners, nature lovers, and medicine makers from all over the tri-state area and beyond who came to learn about and support our town and environment through thousands of combined volunteer hours. Special thanks to Jay Cahill from Mountain Landscaping for donating materials and assisting with pick-up and disposal of brush and debris from the garden.
We are grateful for the community that was built, and the healing that was found through our time together, and the medicine we made and shared from the garden. It was truly an oasis.
The wide variety of both shade-loving and sun-loving medicinal plants are being re-homed around town before we end our stewardship of this garden. In mid-May, we understand this adopt-a-spot site will be maintained by a local landscaper.
Our organization is relieved to be exiting from an abusive relationship with the Beautification Committee who has harassed us, refused to communicate issues, mowed down and pulled out plants without permission—many of which are endangered, ‘at-risk’ and protected by law—and has created more work than any adopt-a-spot volunteer would be expected to do. We are grateful to David Stires, Coordinator of the Recycling Solid Waste and Recycling Division, for his support at the meetings, and Mayor Dale who have helped us to secure the time needed in order to remove the plants.
Sincerely,
Wendy Watson-Hallowell
Board Chair
Nature Connection of West Milford
(formally Sustainable West Milford)
