Title: History and Nature Inspire Artists - Part 1
*** From Marquette Bruce, Artist/Activist ***
In April of 1999 I moved from the San Antonio/Austin, Texas area to Fayetteville. There was a fire in my belly to do my part to keep Fayetteville from becoming the over-developed city I left behind.
In May of 2000, I talked Mary Lightheart into living in a tree for three months to save a grove of 81 Post Oaks at Steel Crossing. This Tree-Sit was a magnet attracting 500 signatures at the tree and 1,600 signatures for a petition to protect the trees. We were of the same mind and heart. We all had a “calling” for the trees. That battle was lost but not the war.
Fayetteville overwhelmingly elected Dan Coody as mayor. It was due to his visionary skills, creativity, and leadership abilities that he secured the funding and started building our trail system that has greatly been expanded on today! Public awareness of the importance of URBAN FORESTS and sustainability heightened because of him. Our City’s first Environmental Director position was created. Leed Certified buildings were built. A few years later the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association was formed out of the frustration of losing a grove of mostly 150 to 200-year-old trees. Around this time NWA Land Trust was formed. Then came the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
Our current Mayor, Lioneld Jordan, led the City in acquiring two major parks and Mt. Kessler Regional Park. Centennial Park was recently acquired. Both park acquisitions created more than 800 acres of new parks and 572 acres of preserved woodlands.
The City has won numerous awards and recognition for outstanding environmental work. We are a National Wildlife Federation certified Wildlife Community Habitat, and we have Arkansas’ first energy efficient residential building code, Arkansas’ first Streamside Protection Ordinance, and Arkansas’ first Property Assessed Clean Energy program.
Mayor Jordan signed an agreement to keep with the promises and goals of the Paris Climate Agreement after our President withdrew the U.S. from the international agreement. In 2019 Fayetteville built and created a solar farm that generates power for most of the City’s municipal buildings. Because of this project Mayor Jordan won top honors in the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Awards small city category (under 100,000 population).
11,000 trees and more have been given away by the City to residents to plant. I could go on. There have been too many efforts to list.
As it goes with life in Fayetteville, we are never finished. There is always room for improvement. Most of Markham Hill and the Marinoni land need to be saved. Because of infill, our URBAN FORESTS are threatened more than ever. We need a driving force to encourage and educate developers and citizens of the dire need to develop sustainably, avoiding depletion or decrease of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance. That force needs to be created by all our efforts! In some small way we each need to contribute to that force.
As an artist/activist my paintings below are some of my attempts to further the love and stewardship of URBAN FORESTS.
“The most powerful thing you can do to change the world is to change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people, and reality to something more positive … and begin to act accordingly.” Shakti Gawain
One thing you can do right now is write the Fayetteville City Planning Commission and City Council, using cityclerk@fayetteville-ar.gov and asking the City Clerk to forward your email to them. Encourage our City officials to increase the protection of Fayetteville’s URBAN FORESTS and natural areas, of which Markham Hill and the Marinoni land are prime examples.
(If interested in contacting Marquette Bruce concerning her artwork, email her at marquette44@gmail.com.)
#SaveMarkhamHill #PreserveFayetteville #KeepFayettevilleForested #MarkhamHillHistory #MarkhamHillInspiredArt
The painting shown here was inspired by Marquette's hikes on Markham Hill.
For more of Marquette's activist paintings, go to her Facebook page or to the 'Friends of Markham Hill' Facebook group.