A Disappearing Act

Being that I grew up in a house not 20 yards away from a thick forest, I have had many small encounters with wildlife in my life. We have deer, turkeys, and rabbits running through our backyard frequently, and I even find the occasional garden snake in the woodpile or under the heap of old cement blocks leftover from when we redid our landscaping. These encounters help to remind me how simple life can be, or should be. However, advancement in our society results in a growing population, and a growing population calls for more houses, more businesses, and more landfills for all their trash. Unfortunately, the habitat for these animals continues to disappear by our own hand. We continue to tear down the habitat of these simple creatures for our own use with no regard for the preservation of our earth, and someone needs to put a stop to it.

Of course we benefit from the growing development of our society, which is great, but at what cost is that benefit coming? Is it worth destroying the earth and all of its other inhabitants? People have lost sight of the value of these more simple creatures that we live with on our wondrous planet. Deer, elk, turkey and many other wild game animals can be hunted as a source of food, as well as the fish in the rivers, lakes, and seas. Predators such as bears and mountain lions help keep these animals populations in check, so they don’t overrun the forest. When all these animals die, their bodies decompose and replenish the nutrients of the soil to help plants grow. The vast and complex ecology of our planet keeps our environment balanced the way to should be. The more we desecrate the habitat that these animals call home, the further we damage the ecology that keeps the environment in shape.

Besides the scientific reasons for needing to preserve the habitat for wild animals, we also get a sense of perspective on life from these creatures that goes greatly underappreciated. As hectic as our lives tend to be these days, it can do the soul a great deal of good to just relax under a tree watching a deer waltz through the woods. They don’t have anywhere near the same worries or stress that we do. They just walk peacefully from one bush of berries to the next, getting a snack, not a care in the world. The only time they aren’t at complete ease is if they sense danger, perhaps in the form of a natural predator or a hunter. Although, even in these brief moments of peril, the deer can simply run away to where it feels safe. Such events are relatively rare anyways. Taking in that kind of serenity from another living creature can change the way you feel in a heartbeat. An instant calm comes over you in the realization that life simply does not have to be complicated. Yet we continue to destroy this gentle deer’s home.

What a shame it is that we continue to rip down forests for new housing developments and strip malls, when there are clear alternatives to this destructive pattern. We have the technology and intelligence to build skyscrapers nowadays, so why build out, over the forests, when we can build up where we aren’t hurting anyone. I’m not saying we should build skyscrapers everywhere, but even multi-floor apartment buildings that house multiple families can do a great deal to save the forest. Why build eight new homes on their own lots when you could build a four floor apartment building that will house all eight families on only two of the lots? Sure, saving six lots worth of land doesn’t seem like much, but when you multiply that to consider the thousands of new homes that are built each year, it could save acres upon acres of natural wildlife habitat. The solutions prove to be very feasible, so why not see them through?

After housing developments, the other major contributor to the destruction of wildlife habitats is the growing need for landfills. With our growing society comes a lot of garbage, and we are running out of places to put it. My freshman seminar class recently took a field trip to the Arden Landfill in Washington County, run by Waste Management. I had never seen a landfill before, and I was amazed by the size of the fill as well as the entire process. Federal regulations are a lot stricter for landfills today than a decade ago, and this particular fill was a shining example of that. The fill must first be approved by the government before anything can be done. The fill is first dug out then covered in six, 12 inch thick, plastic liners in order to prevent any waste from reaching the soil. Then, they begin loading in the trash. It can take nearly twenty years to for a fill to reach capacity, and over the course of those twenty years, a lot of methane gas is released from the degrading garbage. In the past, they had just put pipes in the fill to let the gas out into the air, but the air pollution resulting form this is awful. So in recent years, Waste Management has developed a system where they pump the methane out of the fills and into electric energy that is sold the surrounding homes and businesses. Basically, they have created a mini power plant at the landfill that helps stop air pollution while turning a profit for the company. Also, once the landfill is capped, they cover it in another set of plastic liners and topsoil, then replant grass. Many of Waste Management’s retired fills are now parks where animals live or golf courses which would have otherwise been built on natural habitats. The steps they have taken to preserve the environment and habitat are great, but not all landfills across the country do the same. If Waste management can do it, then everyone can do it, and we need to hold other landfill companies to these same standards.

The creatures that live in the world around us have just as much a right to this planet as we do, and we need to recognize that before it is too late. There are plenty of ways to change our destructive ways, and many are trying, just like Waste Management, to do so. Unfortunately those many are still not the majority. People need to realize what they are doing to their fellow inhabitants of earth and take stand to stop the disappearing act.