Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR)
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Silver Maple Forest in Belmont, Massachusetts
is under consideration for being destroyed letter to Henrietta Davis / Health and Environmental Committee Henrietta Davis Office of City Clerk Dear Health and Environmental Committee, I am a student in an environmental studies class at Lesley College, and it has been brought to our attention that the Silver Maple Forest in Belmont, Massachusetts is under consideration for being destroyed and turned into a development. From my understanding, the development would be placed in the middle of the forest, which would be worse from an ecological point of view. If the development is placed in the middle of the forest, they are destroying the richest part of the reservation. The outside of the reservation has more common species from this area while on the inner core, you will find more specialized species because they want to move in, farther away from the winds and weather that the exterior forest experiences in order for better living conditions and to sustain their species. Also, another issue that should be discussed is the issue of biophilia, which is one's connectedness with nature, a certain bond with nature. In today's day and age, people who live in urban areas such as Boston do not identify with nature for the most part due to the lack of exposure to nature. Therefore, the Belmont Maple forest is an important resource for people in the Greater Boston Area to learn about nature seeing as though it is a unique reservation. Part of today's issue is the lack of environmental education in children's learning. I think that we all agree that generations to come will face many environmental issues that will need to be solved. If children do not relate to environment and even more do not have exposure to, then we will have a generation that lacks environmental intelligence and will continues to destroy our environment until all resources are gone. A solution would be to keep reservations such as these open and undestroyed for children to learn about the environment and to learn the values of nature in order to see that destruction of our environment will only do damage to the human race. If at all possible, this development should be opened in the deserted, abandoned, already developed land of Cambridge. Remember that it is always better to build on developed land than it is to build on undeveloped land especially since this land is so rich with life and nature. Sincerely, Jennifer McDonald |