Move it 
On a local, call-in radio show, they were discussing monarch butterflies and milkweed. I shared that our property is a registered Monarch Waystation. We have planted milkweed and many nectar providing flowers to help the Monarch Butterfly survive. I mentioned that, unfortunately, the milkweeds are endangered by the Sunbury Pipeline, because its 100 ft wide pathway of destruction may cross our property.
A local elected official is a vocal supporter of the pipeline project. He is also a cohost on the radio show. His response to my concern was, "Pick it up and plant it a few other places." Of course, anyone who has grown milkweed knows it is not that simple. Milkweed that is transplanted struggles for at least a year and often dies.
Then there is the question of where to move it. The pipeline's pathway keeps changing. There are several proposals on the table. In fact, in the space of about a week, we where told the company was looking at the back of our property and the southern side of our property. We had been initially, officially notified it would abut the northern side of our land. Just the other day, there was a gathering of men along the road passing in front of our property. Apparently, the front of our property is also under consideration. This makes it pretty much a four sided destruction zone. Every day we cannot help but wonder, what they are plotting next?
We have lived here for 15 years. I have gardened and planted hundreds of plants, a bounty of bushes and many trees. Biodiversity has been important to us, as has been native plants like milkweed. Some of the native trees are now thirty feet tall. How exactly am I to move them? If they are destroyed, we will lose the sound barriers and privacy screen we carefully placed more than twelve years ago.
I think the trivializing a decade of loving labor of a family is incredibly calous. I wonder why local land owners don't matter to some of our elected officals. All this destruction so an energy company can sell gas to private electric producer.
So much pain, to enrich a handful of people.
Cindy O'Hora |
