The most recent clearcutting is a little less than a mile from my home, a
gorgeous tract of rolling wooded hills about 40 acres or so in size. These
were woods I played endlessly in as a child. White and red oak, turkey oak,
chestnut oak, the odd black walnut, native persimmon, and hickory.... beech,
our native hornbeam, native rhodos and hollies were everywhere. Sitting on
this parcel is a magnificent (although now decrepit) mansion built at the
turn of the 20th century. I knew the owners at one point, the mother of one
of my friends worked as an ASPCA investigator breaking up illegal
dogfighting rings with her extremely timid-but-fierce-looking pitbull Sally.
The home has wide, wide yellow pine flooring, gorgeous black walnut trim
throughout.... just a wonderful old home. It's slowly being demolished as
well.

Perhaps most egregious of all, just at the edge of the property line sits
(now sat) a huge old red oak, 300+ years old, approximately 8 feet in
diameter at eye level.... they cut that down a week ago.

It will all be raw, terraformed clay in another week, ready for
construction.

David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
Bunabayashi Bonsai On The World Wide Web: http://www.bunabayashi.com
email:


-----Original Message-----
From: Internet Bonsai Club ]On Behalf
Of Jim Lewis
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 8:22 AM
To:
Subject: [IBC] Offtopic: Killing an Oak Tree (A Gratuitous Death)


http://www.counterpunch.org/jackson01252003.html

The author articulates perfectly my *own* feelings when seeing
the
destruction of the forests around my home to make way for yet
another 400+
townhouse gated community, each with its own postage stamp of
turf and
sickly malus.

Yet ANOTHER argument for birth control.

BUT, keep an eye on the building permits list and get there ahead
of the bulldozers.

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