So,today I was reading yesterday's NYTimes editorial "Selling the Forests" and a more local reminder "What's at Stake in Forest Plan" -- and thinking about the loss of about 1,100 acres in the Francis Marion National Forest. The Francis Marion is my backyard. Almost literally. Over the past few weeks and months I've been thinking about the selling of forest land, and I think I've been so appalled that I've been in denial. Like...it simply couldn't happen. I haven't followed the specifics nor have I written my representatives or local newspapers. Instead I've just assumed it couldn't possibly happen. That's naive of me, and I've realized this is a purely emotional issue for me - the land should not be sold, under any circumstances. It's a closed issue. But tonight I sit here and realize what an idiot I am - because I feel the same way about our forests as I have about recent issues related to our individual civil liberties ...we have to fight like hell to not lose them, to preserve them, because once reliquinshed (or sold), then it will be next-to-impossible to get them back again. Regardless of whether they are civil rights or parcels of land...even if they are "only" a 121 acre parcel of land surrounded by new developments. I don't care. I want that 121 acre parcel saved, because perhaps it is an important link in the migration of painted buntings, perhaps even an important link in the migration of a single pair of painted buntings that come every spring to my feeder and nest somewhere in my one acre of land. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have them visit each year. What a gift! (The fact that they came this year almost a month earlier than normal is another discussion). I sit and think about how to improve the habitat in my one acre (more wax myrtles?), while the federal government ponders selling their land for development. There's a disconnect somewhere, and while I should try and figure out what I don't understand about all of this, I don't what to understand. I don't want to understand why my government wants to sell this land to developers, and I don't want to understand why they want to reduce my civil liberties. Call me naive. I don't care.
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