Forested areas alone have value

Recently, I was driving north across the Edgewood Road bridge and noticed a tree-covered steep hill was being bulldozed and the trees being clear-cut. Later, I learned an apartment building was going to be built there.

It sickens me to see this heavily wooded area so needlessly ravaged. Not only is this steep hill a poor site for a building, but the fact that hundreds of trees were wasted is a terrible environmental shame.

While some people see the natural beauty of a forested area as a sight to have and to hold, others see it as a chunk of wasteland in need of a huge building placed there to provide an additional source of tax revenue so government can spend more money. If only trees could pay taxes.

This project is sad enough to make “Trees” poet Joyce Kilmer rise from his grave to witness this land use waste. He may even proclaim those famous words of Gomer Pyle so all could hear “Shame, shame, shame.”

I would love to see a huge billboard placed on top of that clear-cut hill with huge pictures and names of those in government who approved this shameful use of land. And in huge graphics add “We approved this project.”

When it's finished, I'm sure it will be a beautiful building, but a lot of Cedar Rapidians will envision it as a permanent monument symbolic of thoughtless greed and environmental rape.

Ken Thimmesch

Cedar Rapids