Earth One vs Earth Two

Prairie Moraine Dog Park volunteers are a hard-working bunch.  If we give them a bit of a warning, we can usually pull at least 10-12 in for a workday in the park.  The pic above is from a day scheduled to deal with Japanese Hedge Parsley, an invasive plant that had taken hold in the woods along Shady Lane.  It had also put in a foothold near the Pollinator garden, but DaveJ took care of that patch by himself immediately upon notification.

Even impromptu tasks, like sowing a bag of donated wildflower seeds while conditions are optimal in the park, will usually draw a half dozen or so volunteers.  We're lucky we have a good number of retirees with flexible schedules in the group!

Most of those shown here in the pic are dog park users, and most are members of Prairie Moraine Friends, but volunteers do not have to join Prairie Moraine Friends, and we are happy that some who are primarily Ice Age Trail users often participate in workdays in the dog park. 

Not everyone who wants to support the park needs to, is able to, or chooses to do so by joining volunteer work parties.  There are many ways to be a Friend and support the park!

[July 7, 2024]

Unfortunately, on Earth Two, "volunteers" is used as a pejorative.

A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard.

There is nothing more telling about people on Earth Two than how they have distorted the truth about volunteers in the dog park, including their insistence that there are only 2-3 of them. They used to say there were 4, but one moved and one supposedly was kicked out.  The evidence is plain as day, almost every work day, that there are plenty more.  Of course, Earth Two pics (see above) are careful to only show 1 or 2 volunteers at a time.

On Earth Two, it is said that 140 (or 150, or 170) park users were eager to volunteer for cleaning up invasives.  AND that the number dropped to just 4 when cleanup expanded to include helping Dane County Parks with restoration work in the park. This is absurd.  But on Earth Two, this is what passes for "facts." It is true that a group's membership, or an email list of interested people, is almost invariably larger than the number of regular volunteers.  But the initial number of volunteers for cleanup of invasives was also about a dozen (same as now), out of a mailing list of interested people of about 35.

[July 7, 2024]