A small gray cat rustles the dry grass along the path at Trout Creek Sanctuary in St. Paul.
Mary Beth Becker-Lauth notices. She picks up the friendly feline and sees it’s wearing a collar. It must live nearby, she says. The cat scampers ahead of her for a while before disappearing into the grass.
Farther down the path, a teacup-size bird nest is perched in the branches of a tree.
Becker-Lauth notices. She wonders what kind of tiny, feathered creature lived in that small space.
“I love to look and point,” Becker-Lauth says. Spending time outdoors means “I’ve become a better ‘noticer.’ ”
“I love it so much. I love getting outdoors.”
That love of the outdoors brought the 27-year-old Nebraska native to volunteer opportunities with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation. She works with Parks & Rec’s natural resources Seed Squad volunteers. And she’s involved with efforts to protect and restore the Wakan Tipi area (formerly called the Lower Phalen Creek project).
The isolation of COVID lockdowns in 2020 had Becker-Lauth looking for ways to meet people and get outside, she says. She saw a notice for city parks cleanup and pitched in.
“I got a little obsessed with Wakan Tipi,” she says. The area, part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary near downtown St. Paul, has a painted cave that was sacred to the Dakota. It’s being restored and will eventually have a education center, museum and cultural gathering space, Becker-Lauth says.
“Dakota women gave birth there,” she says of the cave. It’s known as “the dwelling place of the sacred. All of life is sacred. To begin there is phenomenally sacred.
“I’m very lucky to be able to know that space,” she says. “You can feel how deeply special it is.”
Becker-Lauth walks under a bridge at the Trout Creek Sanctuary and points out the painted murals and mosaic decorations. She notices some of the plants from which she’s collected seeds for Seed Squad. St. Paul Parks natural resources staff directs volunteers to the seeds they want collected. Sometimes the volunteers then spread the seeds, sometimes they simply “fill big grocery bags with seeds.”
“I used to walk around and look at the brown fields and think, ‘Oh, it’s winter. There’s nothing happening.’ ”
Now, Becker-Lauth says she sees dormant plants and wonders what seeds and new life are waiting for spring.
“It’s hard to get up close to something – to have your hand around a coneflower bud – and not want to save it.”
Becker-Lauth reaches down to touch soft green moss on the path. No wonder she seems to notice everything. She’s also a poet. The outdoors “teaches me about what I have to write and say.”
Becker-Lauth came to St. Paul to attend St. Catherine University. She met her wife, Joey, at the college and decided to make St. Paul her home. She says she misses the tall prairie grasses of Nebraska, but adds that Minnesota is friendlier to lesbian couples than her home state.
Mary Beth works at Women’s Advocates, which supports victim-survivors of domestic violence.
Joey Becker-Lauth is a chef at The Bungalow in Minneapolis, so she often doesn’t always get to join Mary Beth on outdoor adventures. The couple lives in the Merriam Park neighborhood.
“Getting involved makes me feel so much more at home here,” she says.
She’s learning the names of local trees, and working on identifying birds. “It makes the world richer when every bird is not just a bird.”
Why volunteer for St. Paul Parks? “It’s free and beautiful and you get to meet your neighbors,” Becker-Lauth says.
“It can be hard to get really close to people. It’s not hard to get close to a tree.”
Inspired? Volunteer in Saint Paul parks! From Wildlife Monitors to Park and Garden Stewards, there are ways to make a difference that connect you to nature. Learn more
Article and photograph courtesy of Kathy Berdan