Growing a new attitude

Inmates help restore ecology

By Andrew T. Dawson
Iowa City Press-Citizen

OAKDALE - Chad Hartz's favorite prairie flower is the compass plant, a native of southeast Iowa. He's raised hundreds of tiny seedlings, but from behind three rows of barbed wire at the Oakdale Correctional Facility, he's yet to see one bloom.

Hartz, 31, is one of several Oakdale inmates helping restore Iowa's native ecology one prairie plant at a time.

Prisoners from Rockwell City's minimum security prison collected 28 plant species from nine prairie reserves across the state and sent them to Oakdale to initiate the growth process in its greenhouse. This is a joint effort between the Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division and the Department of Corrections that began in January.

So far, Oakdale inmates have grown more than 8,500 plants, which will be sent to the Fort Madison Correctional Facility where other prisoners will see the plants through maturation and harvest the seeds. Prisoners will then plant the seeds at wildlife preserves throughout the state.

"All the (flowers) will be going back to public ground," said DNR Wildlife Biologist Bill Johnson, director of the seed-harvesting program. "Prairie forbs are so expensive because you have to harvest them by hand, and it's very labor intensive."

Hartz makes $2.50 a day. He studies horticulture books and is a certified master gardener through the Iowa State University Extension Office. His supervisor, greenhouse manager Larry Gilds, said Hartz's computer skills and attention to detail make him a natural in the greenhouse. He's proud of what Hartz does.

"This is Wild Bergamot," Hartz said as he gently separated two seedlings from one of a long line of germinating trays. His work resembled that of a proud father. "They say this one is hard to grow, but it's been one of our better growers. They could have been even better, but we've had so many cloudy days."

Apart from buying a few supplies, the DNR has little involvement in the process, said Gilds, a former horticulture instructor at Kirkwood Community College. Hartz has "sort of been writing the book" on it as they go, by tagging and documenting the growth process for all the plants. Eventually, Hartz said, he hopes the prison can get a camera to record each species type.

"They all have something different about them," Hartz said. "Some grow slow. Some sprout up overnight."

Hartz, a former welder from Cedar Rapids, is nearing the end of a 15-year sentence for going armed with a deadly weapon with intent and willful injury with a deadly weapon. It's hard to imagine his crime while watching the soft-spoken man in the greenhouse.

"I hurt somebody. I admit I did it, and I'm responsible for it," Hartz says as he studies the concrete between his black work boots. "I really had my values mixed up. Not that I like being in prison, but I think it was a good thing for me."

Seeing the flowers in their natural environment is one thing Hartz said he looks forward to when he gets out. He'll be up for parole next year.

"I've been thinking of going back to school for this when I get out," he said.

Fellow greenhouse worker Mike Millspaugh may not be so lucky. He's 50 years old and is serving his 26th year of a life sentence for first-degree murder.

Like Hartz, Millspaugh admits his crime but isn't proud of it.

The two have done most of the work on the project themselves because some of the inmates don't take the job seriously, Millspaugh said.

"A lot of guys will move the tags to the wrong tray and they think that's funny," Millspaugh said.

Like Hartz, Millspaugh received his master gardener certificate and is proud of what he does, Gilds said.

"There are so many jobs here like mopping the floor. We can see here that we're accomplishing something," Millspaugh said.

The project is new for the former farmer from the Mount Pleasant area. But he has worked in the greenhouse for some time, as a leader to the other inmates. Last year, he worked in the garden and helped grow $15,000 in fresh produce for the prison. He also grows poinsettias for the governor's mansion in Des Moines.

"If I never get out, at least someone out there can look at something I gave back," he said.

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