In the name of Progress

During the last several months, I've watched beautiful wooded land destroyed as heavy machinery tore it down in a few days.  Why?  For a new toll road through Research Triangle Park.  What was once lovely woods, comprised mostly of the pines that grow so easily and aggressively here in North Carolina, is now nothing but bare soil and dust.  I, along with others in my office and building, have watched the process of what I call 'raping our land' in order to construct another highway.  Vast amounts of land are consumed throughout our country for this purpose, but I can't complain because I drive on those same roads.  But why is so much territory destroyed for roadways?  Why is all the land in a cloverleaf formation deforested?  Why can't some of that area be left 'natural'?  Not being an engineer, I guess I just don't see the sense of so much destruction, which is then covered over with either cement or asphalt, which in turn generates more heat into our atmosphere.

Today, and almost every day, our building was shaken by another blast at the construction site to dislodge the rock in the earth.  Sometimes there is no warning, and when the building shakes violently for two or three seconds, it can be a bit unnerving.  After today's blast, I quickly stepped from my desk and glanced down the hallway, where the large windows allowed a view of the dust cloud that arose from the blast site.  Later, the huge earthmoving equipment effortlessly scooped up mounds of earth and rock and dumped it into awaiting trucks, where it landed with a thunderous thump, and which then carried it off to another part of the construction zone to be added there.  My lunch hour, which I spend sitting in my car to escape the frigidity of my office, is now accompanied by the endless drone of machinery.  This goes on for hours every day, and slowly the earth is reshaped and configurated into the new roadway.

When  the tree removal first started, I wondered about all of the creatures that called that forest 'home' -- the squirrels, snakes, birds, racoons, opossums, deer, hawks and owls -- where were they to go?  How many were killed by the machinery as it destroyed their habitat?  Would their habitat be replaced?  No.  Instead, they were displaced and had to search for new homes, and when deer invade new developments, whose fault is it?  Humans continually destroy and move into wildlife habitats and then wonder why deer eat their prized plants! 

I understand that development is necessary, but I also think that less destruction is possible.  With more careful planning, I think more trees and natural areas could be saved.  The development where I live was clear cut -- not one tree was left standing except in the low-lying flood plain which abuts our property.  I love that area because there are tall trees in it, vines, shrubs, flowering trees and wild honeysuckle.  Hawks still live there, as do deer (fortunately, they haven't, for some strange reason, discovered my yard), opossums, birds, and countless frogs that live in the watershed.  The development where my daughter lives was not clear cut, and the neighbor behind her has a huge oak tree that must be at least 75 years old.  It provides shade for both of their yards and hosts many birds and squirrels, which continually raid her bird feeders!  When I first moved to North Carolina, I lived in an apartment complex that was constructed about 25 years ago, and the developers left large areas natural, creating parking and roads around them, and the result was so much nicer than those developed now, where the buildings are packed tightly together in a beehive construction, leaving no room for anything other than a few small trees. 

Tomorrow I'll return to work, entering the parking lot at the back entrance which used to be surrounded by trees but which is now barren except for a few boulders that are too large for even the mighty hydraulic earth-moving equipment to lift, and again watch the rape of the land, all in the name of progress.  It was much prettier to look out the window at work before this began and, even after its completion and landscaping, the area will never match what grew naturally.  Sometimes I wonder if progress is really progress at all.