By Thomas Thorspecken
An otherwise quiet morning was interrupted by the sound of a chainsaw and a loud thud that shook the ground. A lot was being cleared that had been a dense forest for hundreds of years in the quiet suburbia development in Lake County, Florida. Dense forest had been a perfect source of shade in the sweltering summer. I had looked at the lot on Zillow and it sold for $96,000. If a $400,000 home were built, there, was plenty of profit to be made.
My friend, had set up a bench near the street that relied on the shade of the trees to offer a resting place for people walking through the neighborhood. It was about to be drenched in endless blazing sunlight. The workers used it to store equipment and drinks.
One worker, known as the climber, had sharp metal cleats on his boots and he was the one who would cut off branched high overhead, and then fell the tree trunk half way up. A large backhoe would push over what remained of the tree trunk and dig up the roots.
The climber was almost pushed off the tree by the backhoe which was pushing over another tree. The tree branches narrowly missed the climber and he shouted down to the ground for them to take more care. In the haste to flatten the lot quickly, they were being reckless.
One of the crew had once been a climber in his youth. Back then, he was up in a tree 30 feet in the air, and the tree snapped at the base, falling to the ground with him in it. A tree branch punctured his upper thigh and didn’t stop until it hit bone. He never climbed another tree.
A large osprey, clutching a fish landed in one of the few remaining trees on the lot. He ate his breakfast as the devastation happened below him. The next day, the osprey returned and could not find the tree he had landed in the day before. Confused, he landed on the grass in the back yard for a moment. He was magnificently large, only about 10 feet from me. He spread his large wings and took off with the fish to find another branch high above the ground to feast upon his catch.
As I sketched, a dragon fly hoovered next to me looking at the habitat being destroyed. He hoovered in place for about five minutes, curious and perhaps horrified. The dragon fly didn’t notice me, we both stared in disbelief. It was a surreal scene. I could see the wheels turning in his little insect mind. Perhaps the dense forest had once been his home. It had also been home to owls, snakes, several ducks, and squirrels who played among the branches. At night that lot had always been full of mysterious noises. Now it would be silent.
A worker explained to me that they were only clearing about two thirds of the property, about 80 feet back from the road. A stake with a small orange strip of fabric marked where they would stop. The lot had been purchased by a developer who was going to quickly build a house for profit. The dense forest growth would fill the back yard of the new home being built. After one day of cutting, only a few trees remained in the front 80 feet of the property. It took hundreds of years for the trees on the lot to grow, but absolute devastation happened in just a few days.