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Yes, this title resembles yesterdays… intentionally so… read on.

Yesterday, I posted our support for ECOS opposition to development outside the Urban Boundary.

Today, I read this story in the Bee and found it somewhat timely and relevant. I just wish the story had dug a little deeper than simply “how people feel about the egrets” which elicits nothing more than an opinion about people’s reactions. There’s a few hints there, especially with Donner’s quote…

“As our city has expanded into what was once open country, habitats (get) disturbed,” he said. “Some species end up in what was a few years ago an open area.”

…but nothing solid enough to really chew on (I know… this is a daily… )

One solution mentioned is to cut down the trees and although the story states this would not be “popular,” even the option of doing this seems to point out the downward spiral of Sprawl. I’m not saying that I don’t sympathize with residents dealing with the impact of egret dung–this is not an indictment against human reactions to problems caused by bad development. If trees are felled, the whole story becomes a micro case study of the implications of Sprawl which could read something like this: unchecked and poorly planned development destroys a natural habitat. Consequently, the natural world tries to adapt to the developed space but doesn’t mesh too well. In order to resolve this problem, more of the natural world is sacrificed. In the mean time, thanks to the same development, the air gets more polluted, the commute gets longer, and the monotony of suburban life more tedious. In a relatively short amount of time, the development loses its newness and its appeal and experiences a mass exodus as people seek cleaner air, more time with their loved ones, and less boredome. Soon enough, the once pristine development becomes a slum, and we have all the right ingredients for gentrification.

So what started out as egret displacement and an ecological issue becomes human displacement and a social issue. We humans are too tied to the earth to not suffer for our abuse of it.

If this seems at all over-the-top, I only have to mention floodplains and Natomas to translate a micro issue into a macro issue that follows the same pattern.

Jason