by Pat Clancy
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Nodding Onion - Wildflowers on property of DuPage UU Church
Photo by Pat Clancy |
The long-planned building of a new sanctuary at DuPage UU church posed a dilemma for our congregation. We desperately needed the space and longed for an architecturally inspiring worship space; but a we proceeded with the plans, it became increasingly clear that to achieve this goal meant the sacrifice of our beloved wood lot where children ran along the paths and teenagers gathered in their teepee. A wildflower garden in memory of Marge Lobik nestled at the bottom of a small slope amid the trees with their own under-story of native plants. We were all saddened at the prospect of losing this treasure we had enjoyed for many years.
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Removal of Green Ash Trees
Photo by Steve Cooper |
We desperately needed and longed for an architecturally inspiring worship space; but to achieve this goal meant the sacrifice of our beloved wood lot where children ran along the paths and teenagers gathered in their teepee.
An inventory
was performed to assess what we had and what could be saved. The results showed that 70 of our trees were
green ash, which coincidentally were under threat from the Emerald Ash Borer
making its hungry way across the Midwest.
The Morton Arboretum held an exhibit of furniture and sculpture made
from ash wood and instituted a program to assist property owners in the
salvaging of this valuable lumber. This
inspired our Green Sanctuary committee to investigate the possibility of
incorporating our own ash trees in the new building. The architect, Bill Sturm, was consulted and
was agreeable to working this into the design – perhaps a wall, perhaps a
screen, but something.
As the time
came to clear the lot, the committee got serious and took action. With assistance from Arboretum staff, we researched
local millers and asked for a visit from Gary Carstens, who measured and marked
the trees that were large enough (16” dbh) to be milled. When felling the trees, Zrout Tree Services
took special care and set those logs aside in the parking lot, where they were
later milled on site by Carstens and then taken to his facility for drying and
storage.
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Milling Logs
Photo by Pat Clancy |
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Boards ready for storage
Photo by Pat Clancy |
All this
took money, of course, so we had to think of a way to raise funds. In the spring of 2011, when our former woods
was a bare-looking field, we began to notice Virginia bluebells, then Trillium,
then Mayapple and Solomon’s seal, followed by Celandine Poppy and
Jack-in-the-Pulpit, each emerging on schedule as though still in the shelter of
trees. We realized we had to save them
from the bulldozers and that this was the answer to our fundraiser. Each Sunday during coffee hour, for about six
weeks, we sold wildflowers dug by our committee members from the church grounds
and raised $1000 toward the ash-to-lumber fund.
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| Photo by Steve Cooper |
Our greatest pleasure, however, comes from the knowledge that a part of our beloved woods will live on in the new sanctuary, sharing our journey into the future.
Now that we
actually had the boards in storage and knew how much was there, the architect
decided that it would be used as flooring on the dais in the new
sanctuary. Green Sanctuary committee
paid the modest storage fee for a year until the building was completed and the
flooring could be installed. We are proud of our accomplishment, which took
creativity and persistence. Our greatest
pleasure, however, comes from the knowledge that a part of our beloved woods
will live on in the new sanctuary, sharing our journey into the future.
Green
Sanctuary Committee Members: Susan
Camasta, Susan Birk, Pat Clancy, Bill Dawe, Kate LaGory, Ruth Schoenfel, Dik
Claus.
