i met with one of my neighbors today, she interviewed me for the los cerritos wetlands trust fund newsletter, a great honor and very exciting. i spent the morning reflecting on why i feel this is an important cause, why i am supporting this organization. basically, i was born and raised to support this organization. my parents have always been great supporters of environmental causes, my grandparents as well, we are proud treehuggers, whale savers and my vegetarianism is 100 percent ethically motivated. i spent most of my childhood playing along the riverbed behind my house, watching the birds and searching for tadpoles...this was in a very urbanized area. not your typical "back to nature" upbringing but it shows you that a kid will dig out "nature" wherever it can be found.
that said, i was your typical aloof person, not aware of all the destruction of habitat going on all around me for many, many years, i feel i have just recently come out of a fog. i live in southern california, an overpopulated concrete jungle with very few natural resources left. it is smoggy, dirty and crowded...basically a desert of very little natural beauty. i specifically live in an oasis with several large parks, a large nature center, a nicely kept bike path that goes to the beach....and a few wide open spaces in an area found to be pristine wetlands. what is the problem? well it seems like common sense to me, protect the wetlands, restore them, allow them to become a park for us all to enjoy forever. or we could build yet another home depot, another boring housing tract, maybe some more shops or a grocery store.
the battle over this land is fierce, it has become vicious! the private owners own the land, but at what point does the government step in and say "hey! this is special, this is different!" pay an honest price and save it? i am just flabbergasted at the apathetic people i talk to who just don't get it??? we live in a congested area with wildlife squeezed out at every corner, we don't have the luxury to be lazy, we need to make a stand to save these open spaces. i know i am getting a bit wacky, but the thought of an area i have known all my life as free and open being taken away really chaps my hide! i am jealous of anyone who lives in a truly rural area with clean air to breath and an open forest/meadow to walk in, believe me if i could i would join you! for me, it is just common sense that in an area so overpopulated and crowded, we should cherish the beauty we have instead of so greedily exploiting it. we need birds and trees, not stores and cement.
as the home depot donates plants to the bolsa chica wetlands, it wants to build a home expo in an area that doesn't need one, up against a bird sanctuary adjacent to the los cerritos wetlands...corporate america is taking over, wake up people!
taking refuge in yet another park...i grew up going to this atlantis themed park, after today i feel mixed emotions about parks in general. we need them, we need the open space, but there is a bit of "phony factor" to me in all the plastic. what a day!
please check out this website (join! send in your 10 bucks, have a voice!), check out the video (under news and events) where for absolutely no reason, nesting birds where smashed to pieces...sorry but this is outrageous! i was a punk rocker in high school...i think anarchy is in order here.
pink plastic? hmmmmmm.....
Keep at it!! It's been interesting to see the development that's been happening in our area. Signal Hill is pretty much devoted to take any plot of land occupied by a defunct oil well and slam fifty houses into it. On the flip side - I have a friend who is working with an agency to preserve at least a portion of "Signal Hill" itself, lest it be overtaken by McMansions. So, people can make a difference and prevent everything from being encased in concrete!
ReplyDeletethanks jen! signal hill is another area where birds and other animals once lived and is now being destroyed. great example! there has to be a balance, we are all connected and once a habitat is destroyed it may not ever recover.
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