Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In 1898 the famous naturalist W. H. Hudson published a detailed
survey of the birds, which, though it recorded some recent colo-
nists, gloomily forecast the steady impoverishment of the avifauna
of [inner London]. The reality has been very dif erent.
—Stanley Cramp (1980)
What's going to happen to the animals?
It seemed to be a simple question, but it bugged me for forty years. In the
early 1970s, when I was twelve or thirteen, I asked my dad about some survey
stakes that sprouted up in the i eld and woods at the end of our street. My
buddies and I used this patch of Kansas soybeans and the forest it fronted as
our personal wilderness. We i lled our packs and walked to the woods each
summer to explore and escape. We caught frogs, snakes, and turtles. We camped,
shot grasshoppers with our BB-guns, and perfected our prowess with axe and
hammer. We relaxed in tree houses and listened to the sounds of the decidu-
ous forest and small streams. The markers we found worried us. Would “our”
forest be bulldozed? What would happen to the deer we tracked, the birds we
pursued, and the adventure we enjoyed when our piece of paradise was paved?
