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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2023)
PAGE 4A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2023 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. Henry Ward Beecher Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com No Mow May sounds good to me There’s been a push in recent years to help the pollinators in our midst. Various species of bees and other bugs have become increasingly endangered due to the loss of habitat and an increased use of insecticides. Now, there’s a big push for “No Mow May” where we all skip mowing lawns for a month to let flowering plants bloom for the polli nators. As a lazy mower. I en dorse the “no mow” move ment in general, even if the specifics need some work. • •• Over the weekend, I opened up our beehives to do a check on their status following winter. When it got down to 6 degrees in December, we wrapped insulation around the hives for a few days hoping to keep the bees alive through the bitter cold. They survived for the most part. We had to replenish one hive that was weak even before the killing cold, but the oth er hives appear strong. That’s important because there are a lot of threats to bees that are killing hives in large numbers, ft’s happened to us before, too. The bees were pretty mad at having their hives opened and attacked me fairly aggressively when I took the tops off their hives to check their status. They were, however, frustrated by the bee suit I was wearing, a gift from Alex who tired of my cursing loudly when they would sting me through my old bee jacket. The hives sit in a lower field where I seldom mow. Sprin kled in the field are various wildflowers Alex has planted, along with some berry plants and other bee-friendly shrubs and trees. In the hot summer months, we will “rob” the hives by taking part of the honey they’ve made and after spinning it out of the honeycomb, put the honey in jars to use the rest of the year. All of that to say this: We’re pretty interested in catering to pollinators and in keeping our bees happy and healthy. Not mowing when plants are flowering near the hives is one small way we try to do that. (It’s interesting to note that sometimes, bee hives in sub urban areas do better than the ones in rural areas. For one thing, the density of housing and small flower plots in yards gives suburban bees a lot of nearby food while in rural areas, they may have to fly some distance to find the same degree of food. Also, more rural areas tend to see more agricultural spraying of insecticides which can kill bee populations. ) • •• All of that may sound simple, but like a lot of things, it’s not as simple as it first seems. For one thing, the “No Mow May” movement began in England and then spread to Wisconsin and other North American areas above the Mason-Dixon Fine. The problem is, Georgia has a different climate than Wisconsin or England. Here, pollinator flowering begins in April and even in March. So if you’re planning to not mow. move that to No Mow March or No Mow April — by May, it’s too late to really help. (The City of Decatur does a No Mow March event.) And there are other complications too. For one thing, not mowing not only allows flowers to bloom for the bees, it also allows weeds to bloom and form seeds. When you do mow, those seeds are spread around your lawn and into neighboring yards, too. To control that, you or your neighbors might decide to ap ply herbicides to kill the weeds, but that can also kill good plants and endanger bee health. It’s a case of good intentions having not-so-good conse quences. ••• The No Mow May is just one movement associated with how we Americans have come to view the aesthetics of our lawns. At one time here in the South, grass growing near a house was considered a bad thing. In rural areas, people used to sweep the area around their homes with Dogwood tree branches to keep grass and weed seeds from taking hold. That was done to keep pests away from the house ( think rats and snakes) and to keep farm animals (yard chickens espe cially) from coming close to the house and depositing their droppings. This packed dirt area around the house was also treated as an outside “room” where people would gather, much like an open-air porch. But the days of packed dirt yards have disappeared, swept away by the suburban aesthetic of expansive green lawns mowed every two weeks and fed a diet of fertilizer and weed killer. The post WWII era created subdivisions and a movement away from traditional bare rural yards. Some argue that lawns are the largest “crop” grown in America today, something that seems to be true given the number of lawn service vehicles we see. Fawns have become so important that many HOAs have strict rales governing how homeowners in a subdivision have to treat their grass; how high it is allowed to grow, what kind of grass has to be grown and how it has to be manicured for the neighborhood aesthetics. In some areas, there’s been a backlash to this intense in terest in green American lawns due to environmental con cerns. In addition to the problems of runoff from fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides, lawns also crave water. When there’s a drought, using water on lawns is often forbidden by city or county governments. And in dense developments, the sound from mowers, blowers and weed-whackers can become an issue, too. In the American Southwest, some lawns are now natu ral beds of sand, rock and native plants all designed as a no-watering lawn. In other areas, housing developments catering to older adults are increasingly designed to have small lawns requiring less maintenance — and the mow ing that is done is often via the HOA and not by individual homeowners. There’s also been an uptick in “natural lawns” where grasses and plants are allowed to grow more or less unfet tered. People view that as being ecologically friendly and is akin to the No Mow May movement in its biological un derpinnings. • •• Of course, everyone has a different take on how to care for the space around their homes. One man’s natural yard is another’s eyesore. I’ve been on all sides of these concerns. I’ve mowed green, manicured lawns and I’ve let weeds grow in the yard unfettered. We now have a small “yard” area around the house and most of what we have to maintain is pasture areas. Those have to be mowed sometimes, too. for pasture management reasons and not aesthetics. How we think about our yards is deeply ingrained in our cultural backgrounds. And yet, there is a subtle shift taking place as higher-density housing becomes more common and lawns shrink. Our society probably won’t move back to bare, swept yards that were common with our grandparents, but a little less mowing and a little wilder lawns wouldn’t be a bad thing, both for the bees and for weary homeowners who would rather spend evenings by sitting on the porch than on a lawnmower. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspa pers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com. GUEST COLUMN: Crow announces retirement plans BY BOC CHAIRMAN TOM CROW On December 31, 2024, my retirement date, I will have served 20 years on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Because my grandchildren are growing up way too fast and I am missing way too many activities, I am realizing now is the time to retire. Grandparents realize the time be tween grandkids being babies and starting their independent adult life is very short. I want to spend more of that short time with my grandchildren. Thanks to the citizens for your confi dence and support as your commissioner. My fellow commissioners, citizens of Jackson County, and many dedicated em ployees have accomplished many outstand ing projects during the years that I have been privileged to serve as a commissioner. A few are listed below. 1. Supported the Sheriff’s Department and the many dedicated deputies. 2. Expanded the Senior Citizens Facility twice. 3. Built the Fire Training Facility (esti mated to save our citizens and businesses more than $5 million each year on fire in surance premiums. The savings are made possible by the many Volunteer Firemen in Jackson County. 4. Supported and improved the (JCCI) Jackson County Correctional Institution Fire Brigade started by Warden Joe Dalton which saves our Citizens about $1 million each year. 5. Built three new ambulance stations and converted all stations to better industrial type ambulance units. 6. Expanded the public transportation service. 7. Built and improved many recreational facilities, purchased several hundred acres of raw land for future needs. Programs have increased from about 2000 children in 2005 to over 5000 children today with 8 new ad ditional programs. 8. Paved and upgraded many miles of roads (over 80 miles of gravel roads paved). 9. Responded to many natural disasters in Jackson County. 10. Built the Jackson County Agricultur al Facility which is utilized almost daily by many different activities and Citizens. 11. Implemented a Pandemic Vaccination Center (vaccinated several thousand Citi zens with the help of many individual vol unteers. our Emergency Service Dept.. JC staff, and the Ag Center. Because of my family’s lifelong living and believing in Jackson County, I have always acted to preserve our rural heritage while safeguarding private property rights (the farmer has the right to sell the land when his family’s need arises). Because I still believe in these two ideals, I am choosing to recommend and support Marty Clark as the next Chairman of Jack- son County Board of Commissioners. Mar ty has proven his belief in Jackson Coun ty with his many years of supporting and volunteering with school programs, FFA, 4H. in classrooms, the Jackson County Farm Bureau, Leadership Jackson County, and the Cattlemen Association. He has also worked on promoting, building and secur ing financing for the new Agricultural Fa cility, Jackson County Planning Commis sion, Board of Adjustments, The Jackson County Community Prayer Breakfast, and many other activities. Working with Marty for many years. I have seen his dedication to the betterment of Jackson County and the Citizens living here. He helped on many of the projects listed above. He will make an outstanding Chairman of the Board of Commissioners. About farmer’s markets BY LORAN SMITH You may be familiar with past refences in this space to farmer’s markets. If the subject is like hearing a favorite song again, I hope you will hang on and reflect with me. Since I was a farm boy, growing up, I have always ap preciated farmer’s markets and am emotionally refreshed this time of the year when growers and producers gather to offer foodstuffs and farm products for those without green thumbs or green space with which to plunder the earth. Having said that, I can remember somewhere in China on a tour that took a group with which I was traveling, to venture into a residential neighborhood. There in a two- foot square space, an enterprising resident had planted and tended three stalks of tomatoes. You can find things growing in the green space of bridge abutments in the land of the Red Dragon. Not sure that Chi nese government officials would agree, but that appeared to me to be a classic case of free enterprise. It also confirmed that one’s person ingenuity can make a difference in lifestyle and survival. For years, there was a Saturday morning market in downtown Athens at the City Hall on College Avenue. It was a truly great place to visit. Then the one in charge of the kitchen at my address said after one particular weekly visit to the street market, “I think it is nice that you want to go find a basket of peas like you did on the farm, but after you shell them and we cook them, you haven’t saved very much. Why not go to Kroger and get the same product which is ready for cooking?” She was probably right, but it didn’t satisfy one signifi cant element. That would be the absence of the fulfillment of having my hands connected with red hull crowder peas which would end up on the dinner table. Farmers and gar deners enjoy the satisfaction of seeing plants grow. They enjoy the harvest, and they enjoy displaying and sharing from a horn of plenty. Emotionally, it is more than turning a modest profit. Seems today that we have a society that does not have any interest in participating in the growing season, finding ways to support agriculture, and connect with the growing process. There are the many who are in step with the apathetic characters in the story of the “Little Red Hen.” This fable is so out of date, there may be many who are not familiar with the details which underscore the importance of hard work and commonsense management. The Little Red Hen found some wheat in the barnyard and planted, milled, and harvested it, asking all the other animals to help along the way. Not one offered a helping hand, but when she baked the bread and brought it to the ta ble, all those animals that refused to help, showed up ready to help her eat the bread. There is a good neighborly way, collegiality, and com munity about gardening and growing things. There has to be a “feel good” sense connected with bringing what you have produced to a common meeting place and spreading the handiwork of your efforts. That is the centerpiece of the art of producing for the dinner table. Artists, historically, were attracted to collections of fruits and vegetables, fields and meadows of grain and agricul ture. When the growing season culminates into harvest, that is a high time for so many. The spring has moved me to recall the many wonder ful street markets I have visited over the years, primarily Europe. England has always been exceptional. The fields and farms of Kent are a joy to experience. Shopping at the greengrocer is always fun, even if you have no kitchen ex pertise. The whole of Scotland, the length of Italy, “anywhere” France, Germany, Belgium—even the old Eastern Europe an counties such as Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, and the Cezch Republic have exciting and inspiring street markets. The most stunning street market by far was the one in Ramallah in the West Bank. I have never seen such abun dant fruits and vegetables. I bought a couple of robust or anges which were extraordinarily tasty, the best I think I have ever eaten. How nice it would have been for an exceptional chef to have shopped for dinner in the West Bank and then cooked at some attractive spot by the Jordan River. A man can always dream, can he not? Loran Smith is a UGA legend and a columnist for Main- street Newspapers. The Jackson Herald Founded 1875 Merged with The Commerce News 2017 The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga. Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005 Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Alex Buffington News Editor Hannah Barron Reporter Taylor Heam Sports Editor MEMBER • Georgia Press Association • National Newspaper Association • Inland Press Association • International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. PO Box 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908 Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com Voice: 706.367.5233 Fax:708.621.4117 (news) Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson, GA 30549 (SCED 271980) Yearly Subscriptions: $45 / $40 for seniors
