Abandoned Lots

[Anne Kilmer]

Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> 
> There have been several evocative accounts of the destruction of
> "abandoned lots".  The fact that residential/commercial development has
> priority with landowners is not surprising and is one problem.  Our
> planning board says their hands are tied by zoning ordinances and that
> they can not deny "permitted" development, just because no one living in
> the community wants it to happen.
> 
> On the other hand the conversion of public land to ball fields and golf
> courses is something that should be slowed.  Although I can understand
> golf, it seems that in terms of density of use per acre, it is an
> extremely wasteful sport.
> 
> A baseball field is about an acre and 18 people can use it at once. Golf
> courses cover dozens of acres and only about 80 people can use it at
> once (4-somes at each of 18 holes).  But in both cases the habitat
> management is hardly conducive to wildlife and other forms of
> recreation.
> 
> There have been a few attempts to quantify the commercial value of
> nature-recreation (bird watching, particularly) but it's clear that
> although there are probably as many active nature-watchers as golfers or
> baseball players, we don't represent a constituency.
> 
> I wonder how many tales there are of "abandoned" lots that are converted
> from valuable habitats to not much use.  And whether this is a story
> worth telling.
> 
> I have begun to assemble my experiences (both as a child in NYC and New
> York State and as an adult in California and New Jersey).  Everywhere
> I've been people say that our area is the fastest growing in the
> country.
> 
> I would be pleased to edit accounts and distribute them more widely than
> this list.
> 
> Mike Gochfeld
> 
> --
> Michael Gochfeld
> EOHSI--Piscataway, NJ 08854
> "gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu"

Shall we balance this with the places where enlightened government 
officials, neighbors etc. restored, replanted, preserved, created pocket 
parks and greenbelts, and made this thing work? 
Yeah, I had one butterfly-gardening teacher propose to bulldoze a 
saw-palmetto area to plant her butterfly garden, but she knows better 
now and is spreading the word. People do catch on. 
What we have to do is get out there and work. (I say this from my 
air-conditioned room.) But talking to people, getting them to see what 
nature does with a little editing, teaching them to see the proper shape 
of a plant and how sweetly the plant's growth and the moth's arrival 
balance, and how, just as the moths hatch, the warblers arrive ... 
It's such an intricate, lovely machine, and I'm afraid we're trying to 
simplify it to the point where we can understand it. 
Nature Walk. aaaargh! So we have to take them on nature walks and teach 
them to look under stones and turn them back; to see how Nature's 
voluptuous untidiness is virtue, and our puritan yardkeeping is vice. 
But they Panic.
We have to teach people to compete joyfully with Nature, outwitting 
raccoons and deer for their fruit and flowers, and I don't see this 
happening on the Discovery Channel or the Home and Garden Channel, both 
of which ought to be providing this sort of lesson. 
	We haven't figured out how close we want which parts of nature 
to get to us. 
	Will you address these issues also, in your submissions to 
Michael Gochfield? If we have to fit all these people onto our nice 
planet, we need a clever plan to live harmoniously with Nature. This 
would probably include the mitochondria and benign intestinal flora and 
fauna we impact with antibiotics, but that's another story. 
Anne Kilmer
South Florida