My tomato starts came up today – a subtle inauguration of the 2009 gardening season. This is the time of year in Moab when many residents walk out into their sleeping yards for the first time in months, kick away the leaves, reach a hand into the cold and quiet earth and daydream about their upcoming gardens. The difference this year is that my vision has chickens in it.

The Moab City Planning Commission is currently drafting an ordinance to allow for keeping limited numbers of laying hens for residential uses within city limits. This comes at a time when economic uncertainty and increasing development pressures not only threaten Moab’s economic and cultural sustainability but our unique and diverse community identity.

The passage of such an ordinance shows the progressive desire of both citizens and lawmakers to promote sustainable local food production and to conserve the conscious rural values that drew so many of us here in the first place.

Last week’s public hearing was flooded with individual accounts and documented facts that spoke to the personal, cultural, environmental, economic, and health benefits of backyard egg production. Chickens’ requirements not only parallel but compliment a backyard garden. They eat bugs and weeds (mice too), aerate and fertilize the soil, and provide a quality of egg unmatched in any supermarket.

The major opposition to this ordinance appears to be nothing more than a petty guise to veil a fear of decreasing property values. The ordinance has well-thought-out specifications to protect neighbors’ rights as well as the rights of landowners to pursue a sustainable, satisfying, and fruitful relationship with their land and their food.

While some gated, suburban communities may desire a well-manicured, homogeneous look, Moab’s distinct charm comes from its mosaic of residences, businesses, and neighborhoods. The mélange of extraordinary geology, historic architecture, eclectic landscaping, and fruitful backyard gardens (chickens included) defines our cultural and environmental landscape.

It would be easy to acquiesce to the suburban homogeny sweeping through many small towns in the West. If we do indeed desire to conserve our unique community identity, we must diligently work so that our common and diverse values reflect our way of life. This ordinance is not only a means to encourage a more sustainable community in touch with their land and food, but is a show of solidarity to protect what we love about Moab.

—Katie Creighton

Moab