Re: NANFA-- preserving greenspace..It's not too bad yet.

Brian Migchelbrink (csteel_at_ameritech.net)
Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:52:33 -0400

"urban sprawl swallowing up so much of our natural and rural landscape
daily,"
Hey Rob, don't sound so glum.
Fact is, Ohio has actually been increasing it's green space rapidly in
the last 40-50 years.
Much of the cleared farmland (clearing out all those trees was a lot of
work 150 yrs ago)
is returning to the forested land it once was. As an example, I could
show you photos
of the Ohio Canal/Cuyahoga River corridor from the 1850's- there wasn't
a tree to be
found growing within miles of the canal from Cleveland to Akron. Now the
Oak-Maple forests
are re-covering most of the valley again! I have read reports of the
very first deer sighted in Northern
Ohio in 1930 in the Chagrin River valley-none had inhabited the northern
part of the state for years.
Now, I have more deer in the backyard than squirrels (seriously!).

Don't get me wrong- I hate seeing another big chain drugstore being
built as much as anyone.
The first surveying parties in Ohio said that a squirrel could travel
from Cleveland to Cincinnati
by tree and never touch the ground!! Unfortunately, that will never
happen again anytime soon.
The swamplands and wetlands that were drained in N.W. Ohio will never
return (ever notice
all the straight creeks on the Delorme Atlas labeled "ditches" below
Toledo?). Now, if we could
get an Ohio EPA with something in their pants besides the politicians
hands, we'd be OK ("sure
you can bury 88 acres of class III wetlands to build an airport runway
Mr. Mayor"-Abrams Creek).

I guess the glass is half full/ half empty.

Guarding my one acre of old growth forest in Bedford,

Brian
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