We've been posting about the North Mankato lawn wars for months, but we weren't prepared for the emotional punch delivered in Jordan Smith's article in Friday's Mankato Free Press, After legal win, North Mankato nature enthusiast's brief relief becomes worry.
Smith begins:
When Edward Borchardt stepped outside of his North Mankato home and into his embattled front yard Thursday morning, it was the first time he had done so in five months.
Using a walker he stepped gingerly down the front stairs of his Allan Avenue home. Several steps later the 80-year-old man stood among the plants, bushes and trees that cover his haven for insects, pollinators and birds. He watched quietly as a bumblebee’s head disappeared into a purple flower.
To him, the unruly plants and animals create a beautiful, natural habitat. To the city and a select few neighborhood residents, they make for an unsightly public nuisance that ought to be tamed.
His need for a walker Thursday is only one piece of a confluence of misfortune.
Starting with a back surgery last November, Borchardt has endured five operations in the past 12 months. Nearly two months ago he had surgery to repair a broken suture following hip surgery, and he won’t be recovered for at least another four weeks.
On top of his own ailments, his wife has health problems that have put her in a nursing home.
And although a state court ruled in Borchardt’s favor this week, saying a December City Council resolution for him to remove vegetation was wrong because it cited sparse evidence, he still doesn’t feel like he has won the battle for his yard. . . .
Read the entire article at the Free Press.
Let's hope the City of North Mankato has the humanity to leave this man and his bumblebees alone.
Related posts:
- Lawn wars: Can "Native Landscape" legislation make towns more accepting of natural lawns?
- City of North Mankato takes care of its buckthorn problem in the worst possible way
- North Mankato lawn wars: MN Court of Appeals opinion reverses city resolution against natural lawn as unsupported by the record
- North Mankato lawn wars: resident maps buckthorn in Bluff Park, citizens badger council
- Another dispatch from North Mankato lawn wars: City removes buckthorn in Spring Lake Park
- North Mankato lawn wars: local man cuts lawn buckthorn suckers, sees buckthorn in city park
- Mankato Free Press: Borchardts' North Mankato lawn war case heard in Minnesota appeals court
- North Mankato lawn wars: City Council passes natural yards ordinance limiting pollinator habitat
- North Mankato natural lawn fight update: Borchardt sues city for public nuisance order
- Buzz kill: North Mankato Planning Commission not so much into lawns to legumes
- North Mankato declares “Monarch Wayfair” lawn a public nuisance from “infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds”
- Strib picks up North Mankato lawn police story
Photo: Edward Borchardt said he hadn’t walked around his embattled yard for five months because of various surgeries he has needed the last year. In 12 months, he had five operations to repair his back and a broken hip. Photo by Jordan Smith, Mankato Free Press. See more photos in the article.
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