Where'd My Forest Go?

When I was growing up I spent quite a bit of time in the woods behind my house climbing trees, looking under rocks, building forts and that sort of thing. I even did an independent study in high school, tracking the life cycle of a stream back in the forest for a year. Development has been encroaching for a while, but it has always stopped just short of the area I was most familiar with, and I hoped it would stay that way.

That's why I was quite distressed when my dad mentioned to me a few weeks back that a road had been cut through the forest, the hill right behind the house had been cleared and now had a giant pile of rocks on it. I was back East recently for work and got a chance to take a look and take some pictures.


There is indeed a giant pile of rocks, which presumably will either be crushed into gravel or otherwise disposed of before a house is built. The road goes almost all the way back to where the stream is, terminating in a large clearing that looks like another large house may be built there. Fortunately, the stream is still around and looks relatively undisturbed for now, but I suspect after the building finishes it will be pretty hard to reach it without walking across someone's property.