When I was in grade school, I did an overnight trip to a nature center. I remember two things pretty clearly. The first was lying (laying?) in the snow at night around a garbage dump and waiting for bears to show up. Since there's literally no way to keep 25 kids quiet for very long, you won't be surprised to learn that no bears ever made an appearance. But as I think about this, what were the odds that the nature center would bring kids to watch for bears? Probably we were watching for raccoons or something else innocuous and I'm recalling it incorrectly.
The other thing I have a clear memory of was a movie they had us watch. In it, a bulldozer is tearing through a forest, rolling over baby birds and other animals with no thought as to their well being. I know I cried during that movie, and when I got home and told my mom about it, I cried again. It was heartbreaking.
Flash forward to now. My subdivision is still being developed. I thought the area behind my house would stay trees, but I was wrong. Over the weekend, the bulldozers went in and started knocking down the forested areas where they plan to put houses.
It made me feel sick for a few reasons. First, was OMG, those poor trees. Second, OMG, those poor birds and other animals that called that area home. Third, OMG, I don't want neighbors behind me.
They did leave a fringe of trees up--for now, at least--between me and the new lots. I'm praying those trees stay because I seriously like the privacy I had and don't want to lose it. There is nothing worse than seeing neighbors all the time. My old house was so beautifully private and that's one of the things I still desperately miss.
I'm also feeling sadness for the trees and for the animals. Did they lose their homes? Where will the move to now? Habitat is shrinking so rapidly and I'm not sure this is really progress.
