WARRIORS

December is a good time to stop and look back on the year. By the time you read this, the Wednesday Warriors will be wrapping up their 21st year of volunteer work for the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. I started when I was 12. A lot has happened, and a lot more is happening, as the Conservancy adds more and more preserves, and plans more and more ambitious restoration work. We’ve sort of grown up together. At least I think I have. I can spot alien invasive plants from a moving car, I can identify ailanthus by its smell (rotten peanut butter). I have met a ton of very interesting people who love the outdoors and lend their enthusiasm and skills to conservation. Oh yes, and it’s just plain fun!

You have to laugh when someone loses a boot in the mud. Or a hat under a rose bush. Or shows up with a jet ski. We never know what will tickle our imagination as we lop and chop and daub our way through a thicket of autumn olive or buckthorn. Of course one of our greatest delights is the appearance of the good native plants that creep out of the underbrush that we have just cleared. We have chosen some areas as

“our” projects, and we get to go back and check on how things are recovering. For example, the fen at Myers Preserve has been our target for years, and this year we – finally – broke through the wall of glossy buckthorn to reveal a splendid view. And of course we will keep coming back for pruning and cleanup. It’s like finding a drinking glass on the counter after you think you’ve finished all the dishes for the day. It really never stops.

I could brag about the number of preserves we’ve worked (9), the number of volunteers (30-ish), the number of aliens (11 and counting), but numbers don’t give you the feeling of stepping out of your car on a crisp, clear snowy day, and looking across a prairie or a wetland, and saying, “I am just happy to be here.”

If this sounds like your kind of fun, come out any Wednesday your schedule permits. There is also a spin-off group on Mondays. Just check the website www.swmlc. org for details on each week’s workdays. Hope to see you there!