Trees

My neighbors just cut down more trees and made a large parking area even larger. It's going to stop soon as there aren't that many trees left on their lot.
Maybe my lovely wife and I are tree huggers. That's not to say I won't cut down trees when it's needful. The health of a woodlot requires a certain amount of thinning. Our tree cutting is a conscious act. Trees take a very long time to grow and only a few minutes to cut down. It's only prudent to think long and hard about cutting one down.

Then it helps to know a bit about the different species of trees. I've seen people who've cut down most of a stand of spruce but leave one very nice looking tree standing. Spruce have shallow root systems and need their companions to resist wind and snow. It's not long before their one nice tree is lying on its side, or on top of their house or car.

I've a few lots of land across the road and uphill from my house. When my neighbor first moved in they offered to buy those lots from me. I said no and I'm glad I did. I can imagine what they would have done to the land. My water source feeding my shallow well runs though that property. Once they cut the trees down and run heavy equipment all over, my well might have gone dry. I've seen it happen.

There's a blank slate method to land development. Cut all the trees down, bulldoze everything flat, then start from scratch. Once the houses, utilities, and roads are in, call in the landscapers. They may even put in some medium sized trees. Sitting on hard compacted mineral soils those trees die within a year or two, but the houses are sold by then.

Seems to me that if you don't have any respect for living things you might as well move to the city. Don't move to the country and they flatten everything that makes it country.

-Sixbears