Loss Of Habitat

It is said that humans are the only creatures on this planet who destroy their own habitat. I think it's true. About once a week I see evidence of this in my city. The city is dense with trees. The ever-expanding fringes of Mobile were at one time wooded. As suburbia intrudes in every direction but South, the habitats of thousands of animals and bugs are sacrificed for the sake of a few people.

I know you are probably thinking, "What about prarie dogs and woodpeckers?", so hear me out. Forget beavers; we are the only ones who think they are destructive. I have removed more brook trout from beaver ponds than I care to count. These ponds are usually teeming with water skippers and leeches too. 

Prarie dogs can do a number on any field with their tunnels, but is that destruction effecting anyone but us? The only complaint against them has to do with us. They are capable of making land un-farmable. Animals in nature haven't figured out the whole farming thing yet, so other than a deer spraining it's ankle on a prarie dog hole, there is no loss of habitat.

Woodpeckers can only drill so many holes in a lifetime, so unless you have one in a tree outside your window, they should be left alone.

Human habitat destruction doesn't end with nature. We actually destroy each other. Race, religion, candy bars, and competition for territory are just a few reasons that we murder. Sometimes we kill just to see what it's like to carry another's soul on our shoulders for the rest of our lives. What about individual relationships? Picture your favorite person and yourself as not only a relationship, but as an old growth forest. This is an ancient place that has sustained itself for thousands of years. It can be paradise, and the relationship probably started that way as well.

As time goes by, and the loving habitat that your relationship has created starts to get old, the loggers and oil wells start arriving. If she gets tired of your lack of feeling, you lose a few acres to Shell or BP. If he isn't attracted to her anymore, he invites a logging company and a film crew from a cable channel to pick through the most rare hardwoods on earth. When you begin living seperate lives, the gold prospectors move in with their track-hoes and dynamite. Before you know it, you are both standing under the last cluster of trees in what used to be paradise.

If perhaps both parties wake up one morning and decide to re-build, is it possible? Can there be a point of irreparable damage? All of the animals are gone. Tailings and settling ponds from the mining operations have poisoned the rivers and the soil. The oil hunters have left an unspeakable mess above and below ground. The sad part is that you were watching it all happen. If you didn't see it coming, you can watch it on tv when you are left with nothing.

Humans must have been created to destroy. Sure, we build and multiply, but what are we building, and what happens to our offspring? It seems like the greatest knowledge we have passed down is destruction. We have traded our forests and their survival for plastic. If that were not true, more than fifty percent of us would stay together. Our commitment to nature is meager, as is our commitment to each other. Hopefully a future generation will see this for what it is, and make an attempt at repairing both.