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At Roselawn Cemetery: a wildlife garden ...
... a wildlife corridor and a marker for a hummingbird garden.
A Natural Sanctuary
by Peter Bronski
Roselawn Cemetery in Pueblo, Colorado, has found a way to add beauty to its grounds, increase involvement by community groups and harmonize with its natural surroundings through a relationship with Audubon International.
"Any community involvement is positive for a cemetery -- bird watchers, family participation. Whether you engage wildflower clubs or nature clubs, people love to see us involved," says Frank Nash, general manager at Roselawn, which is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
"People enjoy being able to use a cemetery," Nash says. "You have to make it available to the public. It's a huge advantage from a public relations standpoint."
Roselawn has invited the public onto its property through projects such as having Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts build nest boxes. Today Nash and his staff monitor 22 nest boxes with the help of Girl Scouts and several members of the Arkansas Valley Audubon Society.
This type of community involvement has earned Nash and Roselawn heaps of praise and acclaim, and has brought frequent positive press coverage in the local newspaper, the Pueblo Chieftain.
Roselawn welcomes wildlife, as well as people. The cemetery provides sanctuary for resident deer, fox, squirrels, skunks, snakes, muskrat and over 100 species of birds.
A lake provides water for wildlife at Roselawn Cemetery.
The beautiful 160-acre property is graced with open-space prairie and thousands of mature trees. Twenty acres in an undeveloped section have been naturalized with prairie grasses and wildflowers, while a nearby lake provides a valuable water source for wildlife.
This effort has brought even more publicity. The Denver Post featured Roselawn in an article titled, "Pueblo cemetery doubles as a sanctuary for animals."
To take his efforts a step further, Nash has created an 18-foot-wide corridor through the cemetery planted with cover and food sources to help wildlife move undisturbed through the property.
The relationship between the cemetery and wildlife is worth encouraging, not only for the sake of the birds and animals, but also for improving the overall experience visitors can have at your cemetery.
Peter Bronski is a freelance writer and a staff ecologist for the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Cemeteries. He can be reached at (518) 767-9051, ext. 24.
For more information about the ACSP for Cemeteries, contact:
Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Cemeteries
Audubon International
46 Rarick Road
Selkirk, NY 12158
Phone: 518-767-9051 x12
Email: acss@audubonintl.org
Related stories:
Quiet Sanctuaries for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow With Audubon International's help, White Haven Memorial Park practices environmental stewardship.
Cemeteries as guardians of our nation's natural heritage Cemeteries set aside by early settlers preserve small pockets of the original Midwest tallgrass prairie devastated by 19th century agriculture.
Copyright ICFA 2002
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