We also were the ones who put up a protective rock barrier to stop the process of land erosion, revived the oyster reef lease that we own with our neighbors and are working to get it permitted as a sanctuary while we add more oyster shell, planted pollinator gardens and milkweed for the Monarchs, planted strawberries and tomatoes which we share with the land turtles, planted Paw Paw trees for the Zebra butterflies, and rarely use pesticides so that the yard is shared with lots of insects. (The one below has made its home for two months in my hydrangea---which never bloomed this year because hubby cut it wrong!)
Our footprint could have been smaller, but we live in a culture where homes are investments and neighbors do not let you build Urts and thus your footprint must be a certain size and stature.
And we took time to make friends with the many bird species, providing them food, water, shelter and peace, and quiet as much as possible. I have sent injured ones to rehab centers and provided shade to nests that seemed too exposed. We built an expensive nest for the Osprey and have enjoyed their soap opera episode over the years.
I think (hope) we are being forgiven for our impression.
More trees are coming down in our neighborhood today to make way for more housing density. It makes us sad. We have lived in our house for 40 years, and carefully marked trees not to be touched when our house was being built. We cleared brush and small trees. We still have our tall firs and cedars, but the rest in the neighborhood are going fast. We have a Wildlife Habitat for birds and bugs and little furry critters in a yard that is both domesticated and native. We do our best, too, but we are losing the battle.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing what you can. If everyone would, things would be much better.
ReplyDeleteWe had to take down our pines, they had a kind of rot and were going to get blown down in a hurricane and smash houses, ours and others. It still bothered me, even though i knew they were doomed.
More pluses than negatives, plus the bunnies, deer and owl were only inconvenienced and the tulip tree probably would have come down anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe are all part of the ecology, we are not on the outside looking in, it is just that we can make decisions that preserve wildlife while most ecological creatures can not.
I love the big garden spiders. we had one that had made a web in an corner of the house when they guys were working on the structure. I put a sign next to it...'do not kill the spider'. she hung around for about two months also. I'm the same here, plant for birds and bees and butterflies and don't use poisons. we have the most trees on our lot than any of our neighbors though we cut down one of the tallows and one of the maples died. we try to be good stewards of the land in our control.
ReplyDeleteI truly admire both of you, even if he cut it wrong. We are very inner city folk. No neighborhood chorus here. Do you read Going Gently? Now this is a rural blog person. I who grew up in the middle of farm and dairy land, miss it in a odd way. He's just getting a divorce, and I hope he is ok. His community loves him.
ReplyDeletehttps://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/
I am please to see such photographed very well, they are fantastic.
ReplyDeleteYou two are beautiful people
ReplyDeleteI wish everyone took the care that you do. Hugs and thank you.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, when you take away the destructive element in a lot of human activity, is not actively working for the environment helping the wildlife. We need constructive work, in our area someone has just started a hedgehog rescue centre, and it is desperately needed to save the young hogs after our hot summer.
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