By: Samuel Lipsky, Student Conservation Intern- Summer 2024
This is a photo of Lil Homie on top of the sweet clover. June 15th 2024. Photo by Gus Nyberg, DNR.
It was a dark and gloomy day in July, four of us Student Conservation Interns were out pulling an invasive plant called sweet clover as a part of volunteer workday We were pulling
sweet clover in a field known as Beaver Lake Nature Preserve which is owned and managed by the Department of Natural Resources. What makes sweet clover invasive is that there’s a ton of it in the field getting in the way of native plants.
I was pulling sweet clover in a patch and ran into a caterpillar. When he saw me he stood up on the top of the sweet clover and started dancing. He was green and hairy and seemed very
friendly. The other interns and our volunteers we had that day did not see it, so I picked him up. Once I picked him up, I went over to my fellow interns and volunteers and showed them the
caterpillar, I named “Little Homie”. One of my fellow interns saw it and started making fun of him. She said that it was ugly and hurt his feelings, so I put Little Homie back on the sweet
clover where I got it.
About an hour went by, we were pulling more sweet clovers when my fellow intern said, “Look there’s a caterpillar on your shoulder”. Once I saw it, I grabbed it and named it “Little
Homie II”. Me and Little Homie II spent the afternoon pulling sweet clovers together. Sadly, once the workday ended, I had to set him free so it could go back to his life goal of becoming a
butterfly.
Little did us interns know that karma was going to hit us hard all because of a caterpillar. That day after work, my fellow intern that hurt Little homie’s feelings was driving
home when out of nowhere they got pulled over by a police officer for driving over the speed limit even though they weren’t going over the limit.
The next day we were out pulling sweet clover again. The interns who didn’t hurt Little Homie’s feelings discovered our favorite plant that wasn’t there previously. It was a patch of
false indigo which we all thought looked nice. These flowers magically came out of nowhere!
This shows that if you are mean to someone it might come back to haunt you.