By: Jewel Pickert [email protected]

The Hastings Environmental Protectors (HEP) is on a mission to beautify the City. Frequently, they collaborate with Parks and Recreation Director Chris Jenkins on where they are most needed. For Thursday, July 16, Chris indicated that weed pulling in the downtown area was high on the list, so HEP sprang into action! Dwight Smith, the HEP Membership Coordinator, organized the meeting under the Highway 61 bridge. Laura Bolstad with Hope through Action sent out emails to other like-minded groups to enlist their help as well.

Besides Dwight and Laura, Diane Smith, Walt Popp, and Joe and Jean Beattie answered the call that afternoon.

They came prepared with knee pads, gloves, bags, water, and a determined attitude. Dwight even brought a shovel… just in case. You can never tell ahead of time how big the weeds have grown. Dwight said HEP started around 15 years ago. It was inspired by Tekla Karpen, who has since passed away. HEP has partnered with the Friends of the Mississippi as well as with Parks and Rec. HEP has installed a number of rain gardens and pollinator patches around Hastings.

Their Hastings Area Birding Festival was cancelled due to COVID-19; however, it is still an online event. For the youth birding competition, youth identify how many birds they can _nd in their backyard.

Anyone interested in joining the Hastings Environmental Protectors is encouraged to visit their Facebook page. Laine Johnson Crump is the president. You might wonder why Parks and Rec staff haven’t already taken care of those pesky weeds.

According to Chris Jenkins, they would love to do just that, but have a few limitations right now. The “park maintenance staff has _ve full-time employees and for about two weeks, two seasonal staff. In a typical year, they would have 8-10 seasonal staff.” Hastings has 37 parks and 30+ miles of trails. Of course, this year is anything but typical. While the City budgeted for usual staff numbers, there were “concerns with a few of the major funding sources, and the reality was that some funds were required for unplanned, COVID-related expenses.”

Thus, the reduction in seasonal staf_ng.

Chris highly encourages anyone using the parks and trails to help pull weeds or to dispose of any garbage they might _nd. Little efforts

here and there will make Hastings look even better. And you will feel better for having taken pride in the community.

For those interested in the Parks and Rec’s Adopt-a-Park program, you can call Paige Marschall Bigler, Recreation Programming Specialist, at 651-480-6175. If you happen to see someone from the Hastings Environmental Protectors, Hope through Action, or anyone else pulling weeds or disposing of garbage, say hello and thank them for making Hastings a better place.

Pictured top left Joe and Jean Beattie, pictured bottom left is Walt Popp and picture right is Laura Bolstad and Dwight Smith.

Pictures courtesy of Jewel Pickert