Letter to the Editor on Webster Deforestation

by Max Lent

This letter to the editor was written in August 2005 and published in a local newspaper.

Commander Collins, on the recent Space Shuttle mission, lamented in an interview, “Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world…We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used.”

We may feel alarm, and possibly condescension, when we read that South America’s Amazon forest is being destroyed at an alarming rate. Yet, here in Webster, there seems to be no end in sight to the denuding of our old growth forests. Almost anywhere you drive in Webster you see bulldozers pushing their way into forests to create yet another development.

One such forest that is in danger is the one at the end of Rolins Run to the west of the Kensington Park development. This is a relatively small old growth forest that is the habitat for the relatively rare pileated woodpecker. It is the habitat for foxes, deer, and other mammals. Trillium, jack in the pulpit, ferns, and other plants grow on the forest floor. The trees are more than 60 feet tall and some are more than two feet in diameter.

In recent weeks, surveyors have been busy placing wood stakes with orange ribbons throughout the forest. Many of the beautiful large old trees have red paint marks sprayed on them, probably marking them for death. When the surveyors come, the bulldozers will soon follow.

Who is going to protect this forest? Who will save it from destruction? Most of us feel powerless to change what is going on in the Amazon. It is too far away. Yet right here in Webster, we have old growth forests being chopped down every day.

I was told by a representative of a national nature organization that there is nothing that can be done save a forest from destruction if the landowner or the developer is not breaking any laws. Perhaps changing our laws is the answer. The City of Carmel California has very strict ordinances regulating the felling of trees. If the doomed forest I described above were in Carmel, CA, all of its trees would have been inventoried by the city. Each tree would require a permit to fell. Trees of a certain type, height, or girth would be protected. In Webster, there is money to be made in cutting down old growth forests. The wood is extracted and sold. What if there was a tree tax that would make it unprofitable to fell large old growth trees? What if the money from the tree tax was used to buy more land that would become forever wild?

Webster has enough forest left that its government could still balance development and preservation. What Webster needs is a master plan that spells out when development will cease, how much forest to preserve, and what species to protect. If left unchecked the bulldozers will continue and the aesthetic sense of place that attracted the current residents to Webster will be destroyed.

Will we listen to our astronauts? Will we act locally to save the trees that give us the air we breathe? After the forest at the end of Rolins Run is destroyed, the bulldozers will be coming after the forest near you.