Persistent Vegetative State Fall to Euthanasia ... Liberals whine (my title)

Timing is everything, and many in Western Springs are wondering why the suburb approved the clearing of about 45 oak trees at a golf course -- some of them 200 years old -- just three days after the village president lost his seat to a supporter of a group trying to block development on the course until its soil can be tested for contamination.

Newly elected Village President Jack Lynch, who defeated John Kravcik on Tuesday, said he welcomes the construction of a 338-home development at the Timber Trails golf course. But when the property was annexed by the village three weeks ago, Lynch said, "It was made clear that soil testing would be done before anything else was done."

That's why Lynch and members of a residents' group called Save the Timber Inc. were surprised to learn late Friday afternoon that the developer, Dartmoor Homes, had received a permit from the village building department earlier that day to start clearing trees.

Speaking as a long-time Chicagoan who moved to the East, I'm always amazed and disgusted about development in Illinois. Developers there seem happy to bulldoze every tree so they have an absolutely flat field to work on, then, when they are done, they plant a few miserable, spindly little baby trees that provide no shade, and moreover are usually of a species that never will get tall. While in the East, developers at least try to protect every tree, knowing that trees are worth a premium to home buyers. I've never been able to understand the blindness of Midwestern developers on this point--why they're so bulldozer-happy.

Oh, yeah, now I remember: you can sell old trees for a lot of money. That's the explanation. But considering that large old trees hold topsoil and provide cooling, you'd think that city fathers wouldn't permit them to be bulldozed. Development can go on while preserving trees.

OK, I'm braced. I'm ready. All the Freepers who think the world ought to be entirely blacktopped with not a tree left standing, you can come take your best shot. Call me an enviromentalist whacko if you like.

The East starts when you cross the Ohio River. You can even smell the difference: there is open land to the west and north of the Ohio, but great forests that scent the air once you are east of it.

Kentucky and West Virginia are sort of a toss-up about whether they're eastern or southern states. Considering them culturally I consider them southern.

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