With stewards like these. . .

She grew up in a place called Philadelphia that has lots of rats and mice, and a few rabbits and squirrels, but no deer, raccoons, opossum, hawks, eagles, or other creatures that inhabit the place where we live now. The first moonlit night she looked out the window and saw three deer grazing in the yard, she was ecstatic. She stood and watched them as they munched on the flowers and greenery, resolving then always to plant trees and flowers that would provide food for them.

So, she planted blueberry bushes and fruit trees, roses and lilies. And the mama deer rewarded her efforts by giving birth to a tiny fawn under the cherry tree.

Now, she watches for the fawn-turned-doe and her babies. A few weeks ago, she looked out the kitchen window and saw the doe and two spotted fawns making their way up her side street to the forested hillside.

Even with all these doe-eyed visitors to her yard, our neighbors stop by to see all the pretty flowers and bushes she has planted. For among the plants that the deer can eat, she has planted a multitude of flowers that they will not touch.

THIS is stewardship she tells him: using human intelligence to assure that all creatures have a chance to enjoy the earth; that when Man intrudes into Nature, an intelligent effort be made to accommodate all living beings--not just homo sapiens. Thus she was angered by news that the adjoining town had decided to deal with the deer "overpopulation problem" by expanding its deer hunt. As usual, those in favor of killing the pesky plant eaters were humans who had built their houses in the wooded areas that the deer had called home since their return from the brink of extinction.

We wonder when Man will realize that killing to eat is one thing; killing to protect yourself or your family is another. But killing to protect a trillium is just wrong.