TRIBAL TREATY RIGHTS, AND A CHEF'S LAWN

BAYFIELD REGIONAL CONSERVANCY ANNUAL MEETING

AN OREGANO LAWN...

...FLOWERS

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  70 degrees F, wind NNW, calm at ground level.  The humidity is 78% and the sky was overcast earlier, but is rapidly clearing except for clouds and haze on the eastern horizon.  The barometer is high.  It will warm up today if there is no cloud cover.  Yesterday was cool and pleasant, a relief from the hot weather.  It should be a nice day for a trip to Duluth, we will take Buddy along but will have to be sure the car doesn't get too warm if we can't find shade when parked.
    Yesterday evening was the annual meeting of the membership of The Bayfield Regional Conservancy, which has in a dozen short years become the premier non-governmental land conservation organization in northern Wisconsin.  It has had many important conservation and preservation triumphs, the most recent raising funds for and brokering  the return of Frog Bay lands on the Red Cliff Reservation to tribal control, and the consequent creation of the first Tribal National Park in the nation.  Joan and I have been  active members over the years and applaud its success in land acquisition and conservation easements.  A highlight of he evening was a talk by a new board member and lawyer, who explained tribal land  rights under federal law and 19th Century treaties.
    Our neighbors down the block have what I might call a chef’s lawn;  it consists primarily of oregano.  Actually it is more likely wild marjoram, Origanum vulgare, in the Labiatae, the mint family, and not strictly the culinary variety of oregano; but it smells like the cooking herb and I have used the leaves (I have some in my herb garden) in cooking.  Walking through it, especially when it is wet with dew, is evocative of an Italian kitchen.  It is quite attractive in flower and makes a good low ground cover.  It can even stand an occasional mowing, and looks great interspersed with wild flowers.  The greater value of wild oregano, or more properly, wild marjoram has been medicinal, its distilled oil used since Greek times internally as a stimulant and tonic, and externally as a lineament for rheumatism and injuries.   
    The plant is quite hardy and spreads readily.  I have never tried to establish it as a lawn substitute, but one could start with a few plants and let them spread, or even plant seed, but the plants cannot be mowed too short, and not more than a few times each growing season.