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| A few of our group stepping back into the 1950s to learn how to "duck and cover" from a turtle. |
The Transforming Nature Group traveled to a place transformed,
The Fernald Preserve, formerly the Feed Materials Production Center, a US
Department of Energy uranium processing plant in southwest Ohio which was acquired
in the 1950s and continued operating until production stopped in 1989. And from
that point on, it was from warheads to wonder. The cleanup began in 1991 and by
2008 Fernald Preserve was opened to the public. And on Friday June 6th,
we were the public. What we found there
was nature. Even if the site is still contaminated with uranium, radium,
technetium, thorium, and inorganic compounds—it is considered restored and it
certainly looks restored. A five-lined
skink greeted us at the Visitor’s Center and we entered to learn the history of
this place.
What struck me most as we walked through their history
museum was the silver lining in the nuclear cloud—that a site that was part of
the Cold War’s plan for nuclear proliferation is now a place set aside for
nature. An effort with potential to destroy life and nature (although arguably
the nuclear efforts were an attempt to preserve life—oh, insane humanity!), has
now returned nature to be more of itself that it has probably been in hundreds
of years when farming dominated the area. Like the old 50s advertisement reminding
you to “Duck & Cover” like a turtle should you see a flash of light (from a
nuclear bomb!), Fernald is a reminder that nature can duck & recover.
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| Fernald Preserve Five-lined Skink Greeter |
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| Butterfly Weed |
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| Cup Plant |
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| View from the bird blind--Ah, wetlands! |
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| Even better, a vernal pool. |
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| Not the Ice Cream Man. |
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| Curious People Needed. |
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| The Nature Transformers. |
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