Wholesale Massacre of Trees in Northeast Ohio--Who Will Speak for the Trees?

Who Will Speak for the Trees?

This spring the massacres began in the remnant woods

all over the Cat Nation--

in Willowick north of Lakeshore Boulevard,

in Concord, on both sides of Route 44,

in any small woods in Mentor that was seen as a “buildable lot.”

They bring in gigantic machinery that saws, plucks, or bulldozes over

everything, from 130 foot tall red oaks and tulip poplars,

to  the spicebush, witch hazel, and ironwood of the understory,

and all the wildflowers getting ready to bloom,

trillium, trout lily, everything--

All gone in a day--what took a hundred years to grow.

Who will speak for the trees? For their value in our lives?

For their usefulness beyond a few bucks?

For their sheer beauty and rights as living beings?

Who will defend them, fight for them?

[Bob Coughlin /  April 23, 2015]