Mayfield Wildscape Reborn

Last Tuesday (1/27/09) three new desert willows were planted at our Mayfield Wildscape. In an email to Daryl Cole (Director of Streets), Brent Pearson (City Arborist) and Jim Tolbert, Mandy Chew wrote:

"We are so grateful for your help in restoring this little corner of nature to our neighborhood. It had been neglected for so long . . . I feel as if it has been reborn with the addition of the new trees and the TLC recently given to the remaining trees and shrubs. Please be assured that we will take good care of these new additions and will continue to protect it for the birds, roaming creatures and future generations to enjoy, as have we."

Mandy and David Chew

Parks and Recreation Department Director Nanette Smejkal did not want to consider the area as a new park. Streets Department Director Daryl Cole sent an aerial view to City Manager Joyce Wilson showing the designation of the area as a median. Of course, our "median" is a natural wildscape that sports a variety of native vegetation along with birds such as quail and dove and visiting foxes and the Franklin Mountain female cougar.

In an email to Representative Susie Byrd today, I suggested that this median at the end of Savannah, Frankfort and Memphis avenues and below Mayfield Terrace be given a new designation of "Wildscape". If created, a wildscape designation may present the opportunity to preserve such areas more deliberately.

No matter what, City employees and contractors hired by the City need to know that littering and destruction of natural areas will not be tolerated. No response has ever been made to the idea that severe penalties will be meted out to those City workers and contractors who destroy or mar the environment.

Of course, this is the City where, if a contractor grades outside of spec (for example, piles dirt on top of an arroyo), the fee assessed is a whopping $50!