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Article: Beyond the interstate: urban-rural links are key to a healthy environment.(Essay)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- June 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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My brother Bob and his wife Sue live on a small farm nestled in a valley or "hollow" below a steep forested hillside in the Missouri Ozarks. In February, a timber speculator bought the 40 steeply sloping acres that sit between Bob and Sue's farm and the state highway that is their lifeline to jobs, groceries and community. Using recently developed cutting machinery known as "bunchers" and "skidders," two loggers were able to completely remove 98 percent of the stately pines, oaks and hickories from that acreage in about three weeks.
Deep and ugly ruts now scar the stripped hillside. Hundreds of flowering dogwood, redbud and sassafras trees that grew in the shade ...