Honoring Wounded Land of University of California, Irvine
Map
Map
Story & Experience
In preparation for this event, I did some research on this bit of land and the adjacent 62-acre nature preserve that, despite its far-from-pristine state, contains a variety of habitats and some rare and endangered plants and animals. Much of this corner of the University was almost lost to a toll road in 1983, but due to the tireless work of one professor of transportation engineering named Mike McNally and some agreeable administrators and road builders, the original planned sacrifice of 25 acres for the road was reduced to around seven acres.
An invitation was put in the community email list. The five of us who gathered have lived between about 35 and 15 years in homes recently built on this land, before which it was cow pasture and historically territory of the Acjachemen people. We met at the community center a short distance from the site and shared memories of the less-developed land when we moved here and the process of loss. The powers that be never seem to consider the land, its shape or soil or residents. It has been just empty stuff to bulldoze and process into the planners’ visions.
We walked down to the site and talked about which plants were native and which invasive (that is the right word- they make monocultures and are miserably thorny.) We explored and gathered material for our creation. We were surprised at all the native plant stands we discovered when we looked closely. And we were dismayed that many dead or inconspicuous plants had aggressive spines and glochids (tiny thorns) that lodged in our hands and gloves.
After the event, we met at my house a couple blocks away for a simple dinner and conversation; some family members joined us.
A number of neighbors have thanked me for hosting the event.
This is the second Radical Joy ceremony I have hosted. It is accessible and fun; at the same time invites us into a very different way of perceiving the land than we have been raised in.
In preparation for this event, I did some research on this bit of land and the adjacent 62-acre nature preserve that, despite its far-from-pristine state, contains a variety of habitats and some rare and endangered plants and animals. Much of this corner of the University was almost lost to a toll road in 1983, but due to the tireless work of one professor of transportation engineering named Mike McNally and some agreeable administrators and road builders, the original planned sacrifice of 25 acres for the road was reduced to around seven acres.
An invitation was put in the community email list. The five of us who gathered have lived between about 35 and 15 years in homes recently built on this land, before which it was cow pasture and historically territory of the Acjachemen people. We met at the community center a short distance from the site and shared memories of the less-developed land when we moved here and the process of loss. The powers that be never seem to consider the land, its shape or soil or residents. It has been just empty stuff to bulldoze and process into the planners’ visions.
We walked down to the site and talked about which plants were native and which invasive (that is the right word- they make monocultures and are miserably thorny.) We explored and gathered material for our creation. We were surprised at all the native plant stands we discovered when we looked closely. And we were dismayed that many dead or inconspicuous plants had aggressive spines and glochids (tiny thorns) that lodged in our hands and gloves.
After the event, we met at my house a couple blocks away for a simple dinner and conversation; some family members joined us.
A number of neighbors have thanked me for hosting the event.
This is the second Radical Joy ceremony I have hosted. It is accessible and fun; at the same time invites us into a very different way of perceiving the land than we have been raised in.
Why this Place?
University of California, Irvine -
This is an undeveloped part of the University of California, Irvine. In the time we have lived here, we have watched large portions of its 1500 acres get terraformed, paved and built upon, and landscaped with non-native plants. This unloved back corner, near a small preserve and facing Bonita Canyon Road, is marked “green space” on campus maps but is mostly nasty invasives and a trail over a city water main. We owe our homes and livelihoods to this land and have never thanked it before this event.
Act of Beauty
Our bird is barely recognizable, but we had fun making it. We found little garbage but much non-native plant material and a little native material (abundant so OK to harvest.) The bird is outlined with last year’s mustard stalks, and filled in with mustard, giant wild rye stems, tumbleweed, coast buckwheat, datura, and several varieties of thistle. The eye is opuntia cactus flowers and the beak is a pinecone.
Additional Photos
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