The raping of our natural heritage

Yes, I know it's not a local, county, state or national "park." That's not the point, though. Most of our natural heritage -- the diversity of life we humans are dependent upon -- exists not on land protected for its conservation value but on the more ordinary places like ridgetop forests in Chittenden County, Vt. Increasingly, that flora and fauna exists in "island" habitats, places that've been cut off from other natural habitat by human artifacts like sprawl development.

I've been walking by this particular land-raping scene for several months now; even watched the earth-moving machines at work.

The language of sprawl (and death of wildlife habitat)

Walking around Vermont and Idaho this year convinced me of this: The word "available" is a synonym for sprawl and the outright loss/degradation of our natural heritage. This sign was found in Boise