permaculture

[mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>]

ubject:
         help save our community gardens
    Date:
         Tue, 8 Jan 2002 12:31:37 -0600
   From:
         "Kevin J. Barrett" <kjbarret@students.wisc.edu>
     To:
         dtv@mwt.net




Hi, I'm writing with an ugent request that you help us save Eagle
Heights Community Gardens, an 8.4 acre patch of paradise in the heart
of Madison. It's the oldest community garden in the nation, which
makes it something of a national historic landmark.  Non-gardening
Madisonians regularly visit historic Eagle Heights Community Gardens
to learn about international gardening styles and enjoy the cultural
and horticultural diversity. On display are gardening styles from the
U.S., Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

THE THREAT:
        The University Administration apparently wants to strangle
the gardens with red tape. Campus real estate is getting scarce, and
they figure the gardens are a waste of space. So they're proposing a
package of changes that will effectively shut down the gardens over
the long haul. They want to:
*Bite off a big chunk of the gardens. Various proposals on the table
entail the elimination of many dozens of plots. Some of these plots
include carefully-designed patterns of perennials whose planting and
tending required hundreds of hours' labor, which was provided with
the expectation that the plots would continue to be used and improved.
*Limit gardeners to half-a-plot each, and returning gardeners to one
plot. (Currently my family grows a significant portion of the produce
we consume, which requires at least two full plots; we could barely
fill the salad bowl on half a plot.)
*Eliminate non-U.W.-affiliate gardeners. (About 15% of the primary
gardeners are not employed by the University.  Since these are the
folks who have been gardening the longest--grad students come and go
with the seasons--their presence is absolutely necessary to provide
continuity and institutional memory.  Additionally, since the grad
students in Eagle Heights typically put in 80 hour weeks to eke out a
sub-poverty-line existence, it is these non-U.W. affiliates who often
volunteer the most time and energy toward the communal tasks that
keep the gardens afloat. Kicking them out would likely entail the
eventual elimination of the gardens.)
*Destroy the gardeners' autonomy. (Under the excellent and still
essentially problem-free Garden Charter that has been in force since
the early 1960s, gardeners govern themselves by committee. Now the
university bureaucrats want to burn that charter, and form an
"oversight committee" made up mostly of non-gardening University
bureaucrats who will micromanage the gardens...and ultimately
micromanage them out of existence.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please write to the people listed below (letters are better than
email, but either is better than nothing.)  Mention that you are a
concerned alumnus/professor/student/community gardens supporter.
Tell them:

*Eagle Heights Community Gardens should be preserved or expanded, not
downsized.
*The Gardens are an integral part of the U.W. natural areas.
*The Gardens boast greater ethnic diversity than any other
organization on campus.
*Gardeners have successfully governed themselves for 40 years via the
Garden Committee, and should be allowed to continue to do so.
*Non-U.W.-affiliate gardeners are a welcome addition to the gardens,
and a living embodiment of the "Wisconsin Idea" about
University-community cooperation.

Send letters to:

  John D. Wiley
  Chancellor, University of
  Wisconsin-Madison
  161 Bascom Hall
  Madison, WI 53706

  jdwiley@facstaff.wisc.edu

  (608) 262-9946

Also to:

John A. Harrington
U.W. Campus Natural Areas Committee
Rm. 11 Agricultural Hall
Madison, WI 53706

harring@calshp.cals.wisc.edu

(608) 263-4587