NATURE WALK - KEEP IT!!

[DTDerekson]

>Imagine my horror when I visited my beloved nettle bed. earlier today, only
>to find that it has been levelled out - and grassed over as part of a
>"NATURE WALK".
>
>I FEEL LIKE I HAVE LOST AN OLD FRIEND

The irony of it! "Nature Walk" indeed! (Harrumph!)

I mourn with you the loss of your "Old friend" -- I know similar feelings of
loss. For many years I frequented a similar place, and have many fond memories
of it (including following ovipositing Painted Ladies around the Canada
Thistles and bringing home ova so I could rear them.) It was five minutes from
my home (!!!) and I went there often, after work and on the weekends, and my
soul took its daily manna there -- I could always count on coming home with
peace in my heart and some new find.  And, as is the way of all nice meadows,
it was for sale, and had been for over ten years.

I was unsuccessful in my attempt to have the municipality or some private
source purchase it and annex it to the adjacent recreational park (read:
baseball fields -- isn't that the only kind of recreation? -- many think so) as
a natural area and so, while I knew it had been sold and knew what was coming,
one spring I went for the first time that year to my beloved field only to find
it scalped to bare earth and swarming with bulldozers. I sat in the car and
cried.

Cultivated, immaculate and sterile townhouses sprawl there now.

I wish people could leave us at least *some* of what we love so much! We need
such areas right where we live, not miles away so we can only get there on
weekends or on a special vacation.