Peculiar UMC turns unused acres into native prairie
What do you do when you have a big (really big) back yard? Mowing it can seem impractical, ignoring it irresponsible. How about converting it into a native prairie?
Getting there took a few steps. The fescue was mowed off very short, and then herbicide was applied so it wouldn’t grow back. The field was then seeded with native grasses and forbs. The fescue eradication was done by the Missouri Department of Conservation, and the non-profit group Quail Unlimited provided the seed for planting the prairie.
Once established, native plants thrive. The field now has big blue stem grass seven-feet high in places, and a diversity of other native plants throughout it.
The project was spearheaded by Donna Fuller. She is a certified public account who grew up in Los Angles, and moved to Peculiar 20 years ago because of her fam- ily ties to the area. She appreciates natural things, and has been work- ing to restore some native plants to the 11 acres that she owns.
Native plants have a difference appearance than the golf-course like manicured lawn around most churches that people have come to expect. Sometimes people outside the church question why the church is “letting those weeds grow up” in its backyard. Fuller said it’s just a matter of education.
“Once people know what plants are here, their whole perception changes,” she said. “They don’t see them as weeds anymore. They see how beautiful they can be.”
The prairie isn’t just protecting the eight acres it covers, it’s being used as a tool to teach about God’s creation. Each year the church hosts a caring for creation event. One year they mowed paths in the prairie, and had the children plant forbs.
“We’re trying as a church to provide opportunity for kids to get out and explore the natural world,” Fuller said. “Prairie ecosystems are some of the most diverse ecosys- tems in the world, with thousands of species present. When you see how God created a system of variety and diversity, with spe- cies dependent on each other, you realize how important it is to learn about creation in this place where we live. You begin to understand how God delights in diversity. God has created a tremendous world with so much in it. When you see the beauty God has cre- ated, it brings you closer to God. It helps you love diversity in all forms of life, including people.”
Although most children may never give any thought to prairies, when you put them in one, they take interest.
“When kids are out here, instead of in front of the TV, they see things that adults don’t,” Fuller said. “When I see the excitement in kids faces when they are out here learning about nature, it give me hope for the future.”
Peculiar UMC is well positioned to have a role in the lives of young people in its community. Only it’s steeple give you a clue that it’s not some kind of adminis- tration building for the local pub- lic school. It is located between what used to be a high school and a middle school. But the school district has just constructed a new middle school, so now the high school is split between both of the buildings on either side of the church. Several times a day, sev- eral hundred high school students walk across the front lawn of the church to get to their next class.
Soon the prairie will be burned. This helps the native plants, which naturally would have been subjected to wildfires. The dead plant accumulation on the ground will burn up, but the deep-rooted native plants will grow back after the ash settles.
Rev. James Stanfield-Myers has been at the church just over a year. He remembers when he first saw the prairie, it looked very pretty and natural to him, and the children enjoyed playing in it.
“The prairie was a responsible thing to do as a congregation,” he said. “It’s good to help the environment in anyway we can, as we are all called to be stewards of this earth.”
Stanfield-Myers said he has been very impressed with a group in the church that has been focused on being good stewards of the environment, and has helped hold the church accountable. The church is home to the commu- nity’s recycling center. He’s found practices at the church have bled over into his home life, and he and his family have now started recy- cling at home.
The large recycling bins in the church parking lot bring many people in the community to the church grounds. Stanfield-Myers said people in the community have become familiar with the church and its location because they go there to drop off their recycling.
“People are becoming more environmentally conscious, and I like seeing the church on the forefront of that,” he said.
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