Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Podcast
  • Home
  • Miscellaneous
  • Sustainability, Greenability, and Misunderstandings

Sustainability, Greenability, and Misunderstandings

Posted on August 23, 2010 By Tom 4 Comments on Sustainability, Greenability, and Misunderstandings
Miscellaneous

Belltower Through the Weeds

Three seemingly unrelated tales of environmental misunderstanding…

When I was playing disc golf at Furman Sunday afternoon I noticed something unusual. There were weeds everywhere and the place looked badly overgrown. This was most noticeable around several of the park benches and picnic tables around the lake.

Furman usually keeps immaculate grounds. Not a blade of grass is left too long, nor leaf left to clutter the green grass. With students returning and so many families on campus, I couldn’t understand why things were left like this. I figured cut-backs on maintenance were much greater than I had thought.

Furman Bell Tower

When I got home and mentioned this to Laura, she set me straight. This is part of Furman’s sustainability program, and the intent is to let portions of the lake shoreline return to a more “natural state.” Of course, one of my fellow alumni and Facebook friends pointed out that this is a man-made lake, so how could it be natural. My reply was that it probably focuses on saving fuel by not cutting down the weeds.

I was only partially correct. What looks like weeds to me are actually carefully selected natural plants, following an extensive landscaping plan. The plan is to create a wildflower meadow along the banks. While the flowers aren’t in bloom, they do look like weeds.

We’re facing the same problem and misunderstanding in our neighborhood. Readers might remember that several houses in our neighborhood were removed from the floodplain, and our street was turned into a cul-du-sac. The floodplain area is now growing wildly, much like the banks at Furman lake. Some of our neighbors don’t like this, and want the area to be a park-like manicured lawn.

Fortunately, some realize that this isn’t practical, and that the area was never intended to be like that. My friend Tim Taylor has been instrumental in raising this issue. The neighborhood is now consulting with landscaper Rick Huffman from Earth Designs to develop a plan similar to the one around the Furman lake. Rick is an expert on native plantings, and helped us with our S.C.A.L.E. outdoor classroom in Spartanburg Five.

Even with Rick’s expert help, I’m afraid some of our neighbors won’t be happy. Like me with my initial reaction to the Furman lake, they are only going to see weeds. Some folks have trouble seeing the beauty of a natural area.

And finally, on a marginally related not, I got really aggravated with a stupid television show. I know, I know. I should let it bother me, but this one did. Laura likes the show House Hunters. I’m not much of a fan, but for some reason I found myself watching this particular episode. In the show, a real estate agent shows a couple three houses. They way the pros and cons of each, and by the end of the show, they make a selection.

On this particular episode, a retired couple from Florida wanted to move to Asheville, NC. They previously operated an organic farm near Orlando, and wanted a home with “green” features. From the outset it was clear that neither they nor the show producers really knew what “green” meant. They were using “green” and “organic” interchangeably, which they are not.

To this couple, going green meant buying a house without chemical toxins. If a house had composite cabinetry or carpet that might out-gas, they were ready to rip it out and replace it with “natural” or sustainable products. The problem was that they were increasing their environmental footprint 1. by buying a house far larger than they needed and 2. by ripping out perfectly serviceable components just so that they could replace them with something “natural.” All of that stuff they pulled out of the house they eventually bought has to go into a landfill somewhere.

Part of the problem was that they were confusing their own “green” desires with sustainability as a whole. In this case, the two were actually at odds. While they were able to rid their own home of what they considered to be toxins, they used up even more resources, then had the problem of disposal of the stuff they removed. That was hardly a good environmental decision.

Tags: Furman Furman University sustainability

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Disc Golf at Furman
Next Post: Ebenezer, Shiloh, Moriah, and Beulah ❯

4 thoughts on “Sustainability, Greenability, and Misunderstandings”

  1. Ken Cothran says:
    August 24, 2010 at 6:37 pm

    It’ll be interesting to watch Furman manage this meadow area. Often areas left “natural” near a lake or in the open will soon get small trees (usually scrub trees like sweet gum or black gum) that grow and become impenetrable thickets. Now, thickets are good – wildlife love them, as well as little kids playing “war.” But they can become jungle in our lush Southern setting.

    Reply
  2. Dwight says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:27 am

    Tell me the lakeshore behind the student center and dining hall will still be lawn. . . .

    Reply
  3. Dwight says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:31 am

    Hmm. Now that I’ve looked at the Furman website, I wonder if they’ll let me put a canoe in the water when the native sunfish and bass have grown to catchable size. (I assume they’ll have fish in there)

    Reply
    1. Tom says:
      August 25, 2010 at 9:59 am

      Dwight – still not sure I would want to eat, or even catch anything from that lake.

      As for the space behind the student center and dining hall, they do plan to leave that manicured, as far as I know.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (197)
  • Entertainment (201)
  • Family (123)
  • Gear (114)
  • General Technology (98)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (275)
  • Internet (141)
  • Local (458)
  • Miscellaneous (557)
  • Music (202)
  • Paddling (265)
  • Photography (781)
  • Podcast (16)
  • Rambling (233)
  • Rants (161)
  • Recipes (36)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (413)
  • Uncategorized (143)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (59)

Recent Posts

  • Carolina Ghost Towns – Paper Towns
  • Kayaking on Wolf Creek Lake
  • Carolina Ghost Towns – Colonial Dorchester
  • Six Layer Bourbon Grits Bowl
  • How’s the House? Part 2

Recent Comments

  • Eric Kincaid on Kayaking and Coffee
  • Daniel S Mawn on Remembering the Walke
  • Judy Hall on The Clock on Wade Hampton
  • Charles Johnson on In Search of the Road Builder
  • Anthony h hannig on From Kingsbury to Stoneboro – Rambling in Lancaster County

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear Georgia geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
June 2025
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« May    

Copyright © 2025 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown