Paul Wahlquist’s love of creation leads toward prairie restoration

In December 2018, Paul Wahlquist, formerly of Forest Lake, passed away. Paul was a caring person who had a love for history, community and traveling around the world. He generously left a portion of his estate to Faith. This memorial gift gives Faith the opportunity to honor Paul through an exciting new Creation Care initiative.

 

Paul won the statewide Minnesota Conservation Award as a high school sophomore, for an essay he wrote regarding the importance of nature. Paul greatly appreciated science and the natural world, writing numerous columns devoted to his interest for the Forest Breeze, Forest Lake High School's national award-winning newspaper, where he served as editor.

 

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand how church, nature and preservation would benefit all, but, in this case, Paul Wahlquist really was a rocket scientist. His love for the universe around him led him to his career at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Faith is blessed by a large green field that extends beyond our playground. We plan to turn a portion of the field into a restored prairie environment. It will add a distinctive look to the field and provide valuable habitat for songbirds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. It’s also an opportunity to educate our community about native landscapes with plant identification signs.

Establishing a native landscape will provide a long-term, ecologically sound area that is adapted to the existing conditions of the site. This native landscape will not require irrigation, black dirt or other soil amendments. 

 

The 4-year process will begin late this spring with a “germination year” which includes a controlled burn, herbicides, seeding, mulching, infrequent mowing, and planting. In the following years, spot spraying, spot mowing, wicking and other techniques will be used to control weeds within the developing native landscape. An occasionally prescribed burn will be used as needed to stimulate native species to grow more robustly.