A recent trip to Chicago left Paul McAfee frustrated and stirred to call for action.
McAfee, the newly elected board president for Little River Wetlands Project, describes the area he visited in suburban Chicago as “complete bedlam” in a Letter to the Editor published Jan. 21 in the local Journal Gazette newspaper.
“Every acre of land was developed in one way or another with roads, buildings, etc.,” wrote McAfee, who helped found LRWP in 1990. “Driving anywhere was an exciting affair involving a fair amount of risk. The only natural areas were the few islands of land that someone had caused to be protected from development.”
Developing land removes it from any form of natural ecosystem, his letter noted.
McAfee sees the same sprawling growth in Allen County, he said during a recent phone conversation.
“I lived kind of out in the country just outside of Fort Wayne,” he said of his home in northwest Allen County. “And now it’s caught up to me and traffic is 10 times worse than when I first got here 30-some years ago. They’re building like mad everywhere.”
Noise and light pollution also have increased, he added.
“The problem with growth is it can’t go on forever,” McAfee said. “People seem to act like you have to have it to survive, but how can that be? At some point it’s going to stop of its own accord, which could be from a disaster, or you could be more careful about it.”
He suggests people consider moving to a steady state economy. The concept involves a sustainable approach to living where the population remains at a level that is sustainable based on available resources and quality of life goals.
To control growth, however, McAfee said citizens can’t depend on local, state and federal government. Indiana’s newly appointed director of the Department of Natural Resources, for example, authored recent legislation that reduced protections for wetlands around the state, McAfee noted in his letter to the editor.
“Every politician out there seems to want more money and more power, and the way to do that in our economy is growth,” he said during the phone conversation.
His recommendation: Get involved with a non-governmental organization working to conserve land and natural areas, whether it be through sharing your time and talent or a financial donation, or both.
“It’s going to take non-governmental organizations to do things, like Little River (Wetlands Project),” he said. “We’re trying to protect land from growth.”
LRWP currently conserves more than 1,300 acres of wetlands, woods and prairie in the Little River valley between Fort Wayne and Huntington.
Along with volunteering time, monetary donations help greatly because it costs a lot to buy land, McAfee said.
That’s one reason he sees the potential for local conservation organizations to collaborate on projects, especially larger ones.
“The more organizations the better because that gets more people involved,” McAfee said. “If you only have one (organization), you know there’s going to be a limited number of people involved. If you have a dozen, then you have a lot of people involved.”
LRWP already partners with ACRES Land Trust to own and preserve the Little River Landing site in Huntington. The 53-acre preserve lies near where the Little River flows into the Wabash River at the Historic Forks of the Wabash.
Additional collaborations are underway, and McAfee expects more will take place in the future.
You can be part of it by joining grassroots efforts to protect more natural areas in northeast Indiana and beyond.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Here are just some of the organizations with which you can volunteer time, talent and/or treasure to protect natural areas in northeast Indiana:
Little River Wetlands Project: lrwp.org
ACRES Land Trust: acreslandtrust.org
Friends of Cedar Creek: friendsofcedarcreek.org
Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana (4 camps): girlscoutsnorthernindiana-michiana.org
Indiana Native Plant Society, Northeast Chapter: indiananativeplants.org/chapters/northeast-chapter
Izaak Walton League of America, Fort Wayne Chapter: iwla-fw.org
LC Nature Park: lcnaturepark.org
Pollinator Project’s Project Wingspan: pollinator.org/wingspan
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization: savemaumee.org
Scouting America, Anthony Wayne Area Council (3 camps at Anthony Wayne Scout Reservation): awac.org
The Nature Conservancy Indiana Chapter: nature.org/indiana
Three Rivers Birding, previously known as Stockbridge Audubon Society: stockbridgeaudubon.org
Hozzászólások