Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day isn't something I grew up celebrating. I don't know if it was just us, or if a day hadn't yet be declared in which to honor our beloved earth. I first became aware of Earth Day during our years in graduate school. Prior to that, the closest we got was Arbor Day.

Today we are celebrating the earth by going on a litter walk to pick up trash. There's a lot of it nearby because we live off a busy road, surrounded by restaurants. Before moving here our family would often go on a litter walk and collect trash around the park and the trails around our home. It was much more like an easter egg hunt for the kids back then, because they were smaller, and there was much less trash to be found. We always had a snack or treat to eat when we were done.

Also, I'm going to start documenting a project starting next to our home. A large building which had been the State Board of Realtors home for 35 years, but which they outgrew and sold off to a developer, is about to be torn down. In the 3.3 acre space that we look out at, this developer has convinced the (small number of) local authorities and powers that be, to grant him permission to build eighteen single family dwellings on the space. Currently there is a large parking lot, lots of green and many trees sharing the area with the building.

I am quite annoyed by the whole thing for many reasons. First, I liked the former residents. They were realtors, and they'd stop by during business hours to pass their exams and get supplies etc. It was a great business to have next door. The parking lot was a nice short cut through to the neighborhood we're essentially isolated from on our little horseshoe. We walked through it to visit friends, go to school, church etc.

Second, the building would have made an ideal community center or new library (two things our township is addressing). But the asking price was out of reach for the township, and it went to this developer with deeper pockets.

Third, the developer is going to put a fence up around the premesis, and build this PUD (Planned Urban Development). These PUD homes are to be fairly small, no yard, with only 10 ' of space between homes. There will be a one-way street through the development, and they're gearing the homes towards empty nesters. The price range I've heard is $450+.

Because of complaints and concerns from local area residents about the impact of all this building, the developer agreed to build around the existing healthy trees. They hired a Tree Doctor (I wonder if tree medical school is as intensive as Human Medical School?) to come and assess all the trees there. It was the middle of winter, with no leaves on any of the trees when they had this assessment done, and wouldn't you know it, there happen to be several trees that are dead, which need to be removed. So the took blue paint, and sprayed these trees with the word "DEAD" on the trunks. I thought to myself how it's very convenient that these trees happen to be smack-dab in the middle of where a cash-cow PUD home needs to go. Too convenient. Especially when you look at them now, all covered with green leaves and buds. Looks funny with the word "DEAD" spray painted on the trunks.

Anyway, on earth day 2008, I just wanted to gripe a bit about commercial development that doesn't give any consideration to local communities and the impact and needs of the residents. I admit a lot of my annoyance stems from the proximity of this project to my front door. I don't relish living through the demolition and construction of the 3.3 acres I happen to live next to. The noise, traffic, debris, pollution, increase in strangers hanging out around my home...all of it galls me. I wish we as a community were better at reusing a perfectly fine building for a purpose that it was well-suited to (in this case, a professional office complex, dentist/doctor, library, etc) instead of killing trees and tearing it down to build the thing that will squeeze as much profit out of the space as the developer can get his hands on. It kind of makes me sick.

I'll end with a shout out to trees and good people everywhere by sharing this poem that I love:

Good Timber
by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.