A Travesty on Earth Day
April 23rd, 2008
It happened on Earth Day, in Bethesda, Maryland. In a city which has an innovative program underway to reduce the city’s carbon footprint. In a county that on that very day passed a green building law as well as laws requiring Montgomery County workers to use biofuels and to justify the use of SUVs. In a country whose President posed for a photo opp planting trees to commemorate Earth Day.
Eight healthy, beautiful, four story tall trees adjacent to a city sidewalk felled to make way for yet another condominium building. This happened on Earth Day. Really.
–Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
5 Responses to “A Travesty on Earth Day”
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due to catastrophic weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, the US is short 700 thousand trees,like Katrina etc…
better hurry and buy the president a new shovel, hard hat and steel-toed boots so that he can help us re-plant the deficit of his catastrophic attitude toward our health giving arboreal heritage.
you are awesome!!!it is great that you take the time to report on such things!!! i will never understand the total disrespect for trees that some people display (ironically the name of the company on the side of the truck that was grinding up the healthy branches was “The Care of Trees” – ha!). planting a “twig” in the place of these trees once the condos go up is just NOT the same! Shame on them!
Oh, Amanda, you made my night with that compliment. I’m so glad you told me about the situation with the trees. It just makes no sense that on the one hand MC is passing laws to combat global warming, and on the other hand, it is allowing trees – our best allies in the fight against global warming and pollution – to be sacrificed. There is a law that was just passed about tree canope, but I don’t have the details, so I don’t know if it would have applied to this situation. I have a call in to Councilman Berliner’s office to find out. — Lynn
Makes me sick to the stomach. It is such an ugly road anyway. And I bet the condos won’t be anywhere as pretty as those trees. Wouldn’t it have added to the value to have inc. trees and condos?
Well, this being Bethesda, I ran into a developer as I was snapping pictures. He explained to me that the root systems extend so far down and across that there is no way to put up a building without killing the trees. His perspective was that the developers are doing all they can, that Montgomery County has very stringent rules about tree removal, and that they’ll replant the trees. But gosh, those trees took decades to get so large! There is another way…in Rehoboth Beach, a tree inspector comes out and reviews any plans to remove trees. I doubt that project would have been approved in Rehoboth Beach. The city of Rehoboth Beach is serious about preserving the charm of Rehoboth Beach – and that includes the trees. But trees are about more than charm and shade – they are our best allies in the fight against global warming. Thanks for your comment, Julie! — Lynn
Thank you for pointing out all what your county is doing to reduce its carbon foot print and the contradiction between that (reducing carbon footprint) and building more condos.
What I am noticing in Philadelphia is that government officials’ are mostly functioning on the old “economic growth” paradigm with a twist that now we need economic growth with a small carbon footprint.
Well, No – we need to move, slowly, but move to a radically different economic paradigm.
You’re welcome, Jayma, thanks for stopping by. Folks, Jayma blogs at phillyecocity.com – check it out!
[…] are being cut down or even witnessing a single tree taken down certainly invokes emotion. Lynn at OrganicMania describes some poor planning and what some would perceive as reckless behavior from Bethesda, […]