My neighbors and I are truly fortunate to have many different types of wildlife so close to our homes. As a wildlife photographer and a wildlife admirer, a couple of days ago I had 11 Bighorn Sheep, about 75+ Elk, 13 Turkeys, 2 Red Fox and numerous species of birds come by my home in just one day. And that is only the wildlife that I managed to see during the day as I wasn’t looking the whole time for wildlife. So taking that into consideration, I decided to plant some Estes Park grass seed in the area around my home. I decided that if I planted more edible grass, then maybe the wildlife would like to stop by even more. I have numerous flowers that I planted last year and I watched the Black-Eyed Susan being eaten, one flower each day, for 20 days (20 flowers) by an ever persistent chipmunk. I hear and read all the time about how the wildlife in Estes Park strips everyone’s home yard of their precious flowers, trees, shrubs, etc. But they have to survive, too. They need to eat each and every day. They don’t have a Safeway Supermarket to go shopping to purchase their food for the week! I drive around and see these expensive homes with landscaped yards and wire fences circling all their trees, shrubs and flowers that they want protected. When I had my home out in the country in the Northeast, I planted about 400+ tulips all around my home (numerous acres). And in 26 years of living there, I never saw one tulip bloom as the deer came around about the same time each spring and topped every one of my tulips. But to see the deer come up to my front door each year was worth the loss of the flowers.
 
And, here in Estes Park, we had a chipmunk that we named “Poppy” come by our home last year. We would be sitting outside admiring the couple of red poppies that had just bloomed that morning only to have Poppy come by right in front of us and eat a single poppy each day. The chipmunk would just look at us, holding the beautiful orange poppy in its 2 little paws…. munching away with a smile on its face.
 
“Timber!” There goes another tall purple flower as the chipmunk, not being able to get to the flower, cuts it down at the bottom of the stem. Another beautiful flower gone and only enjoyed for less than a week.
 
But now let’s get back to the grass seed that I was planting. I waited for right before a snowfall was forecast and carefully and methodically threw the 2 bags of grass seed (and even wildflowers) out all around my home. The snow fell just as I was finished and a smile came across my face. Perfect timing and perfect conditions. I was on my way to having even better grass for the Elk, Deer, Big Horn Sheep, etc. There would be more wildlife and more destruction of all the grass and wildflowers around our home. But what a great value for less than $100 of grass seeds and flower seeds! Who could get so much pleasure for less than $100?
 
But, every plan is not perfect as I felt sorry for all the Juncos that were out in the deep snow and had a tough time finding food the next day. I quickly went to purchase 2 bags of bird seed for the hundreds of Juncos. Now, they were happy, too. But what I didn’t realize was that, when the snow melted, they would decide to stay and eat all my grass seed. ALL OF IT! Now since there is a plan in place for the Elk, I was just thinking…are there small enough numbered radio collars made for Juncos? Maybe the Elk plan would work for the Juncos, too? But if the Juncos population is thinned out, what will happen with the balance of nature? Hmmmm. Chief Seattle said, in an address to President Franklin Pierce (1855), regarding the sale of the Native lands to the American government. “How can one buy or sell the air, the warmth of the land? That is difficult for us to imagine. We do not own the sweet air or the sparkle on the water. How then can you buy them from us?
 
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but the thread of it. Whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together; all things connect. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls also the children of the Earth.”
 
We were told we should learn from history and not repeat our mistakes, but it seems that usually we never do learn.