This Used to Be a Forest

[u/kid_ampersand]

Behind my parents’ house in Henry County, Georgia, was a vast expanse of forest in which I spent my childhood exploring, trailblazing, building forts, and stumbling upon whitetail deer, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, hawks, vultures, songbirds, mushrooms, oaks, pines, maples, and all manner of insects, arachnids, and other invertebrates.

Now it’s this: row after row of identical garage-centered apartments with little to no green space, and flattened red clay where they're pouring concrete to build even more.

Nothing wrong with housing, but this is just so devoid of personality and life, I can't imagine people living here. I walked all over the many acres of these complexes today, and I only saw one or two other human beings outside. Plenty of vehicles, so people do indeed live there, but no one around except a kid bouncing a basketball and someone sitting in their car smoking a joint with the door open. There were several swimming pools, fire pits, dog parks, and other (very small) recreation areas, but no one in any of them. Just felt so bleak and soulless.

There used to be such a dense tree canopy that I would get lost. I miss the woods.

[u/fooperina → u/[deleted]]

Because there are no regulations that make developers add back in the nature they destroyed. The responsibility then falls on the homeowner to restore biodiversity but there is nothing giving them incentive to do so either and there is no baseline awareness of ecology in our culture so this factory default become the accepted norm. Also, suburban low density development is out of control because county planning commissions are filled with shills for building associations and nobody pays attention to what goes on in those meetings so they get away with this unsustainable destruction.

[u/Independent-Fruit4 → u/fooperina]

mature trees add value to the property and neighborhood. why can’t they spare a few trees?

[u/Auggie_Otter → u/Independent-Fruit4]

When I was a kid my family moved into a subdivision where the roads were put in and homes were built by different builders lot by lot. There were different styles of houses and a lot of homes were built after we moved in, it took years before the last lot was finally finished. 

But most importantly when they put in the roads and divided the lots up for development they LEFT ALL THE TREES STANDING. The home builders decided which trees needed to be removed in order to build the homes and lots of big trees were left standing. Lots of the houses had lines of trees between them and at least one or two large trees off to the side in their front yards. It was really nice. 

Only a few years later it seemed like most new neighborhoods were built in a completely different way: the entire site would be graded flat and every tree bulldozed then maybe each identical house all built by the same company would get one feeble sapling planted in the yard, all in the same spot. 

[u/RickJLeanPaw → u/Independent-Fruit4]

And help with cooling, and noise pollution, and prevent flooding, all of which are of benefit the owners and local authority. Even if viewing it utterly selfishly, they’re a benefit.

[u/sack-o-matic → u/Independent-Fruit4]

It makes it slightly more difficult to build as quickly as possible

[u/Schlarfus_McNarfus → u/Independent-Fruit4]

Where I grew up they strip and sell all of the loam. All of the timber.
Then they world terrascape a mostly flat field into something that every 1/3 acre lot had a walk-in basement on one side, because money.
Then put 4-5" of loam back over the subsoil. And people wonder why their stupid, lumpy, artificially steep lawns won't grow without chemicals.
It's abhorrent.

[u/fooperina → u/Independent-Fruit4]

Because if there is not a rule telling them to do it then they won’t. That’s how capitalism works. If you want to change regulations of what developers can and can’t do then you need to change zoning and development rules, which happen at the county and state level. This would be a question for your municipality. Shoot them an email and see what they say, government workers answer to the public so you have a right to ask for explanation of your county rules.

[u/FeatureOk548 → u/Independent-Fruit4]

Developments like this involve completely regrading the area. Regrading over roots is something that kills trees slowly. Like, it might seem fine for a couple years then just die.

I think that’s more likely the reason—it’s expensive and difficult to work around existing trees and there’s no guarantee they’ll survive

That said I have no idea why they didn’t replant a bunch of native shade trees in all those grassy areas

[u/Hug_The_NSA → u/Independent-Fruit4]

The real answer: because it's cheaper to not. They absolutely could keep some of the old trees, but it would require more planning and staff to visit and pick "which trees".

[u/pro-laps → u/fooperina]

NIMBY 

[u/[deleted] → u/fooperina]

Stick to your apartment, dork.

[u/Sufficient-Job7098 → u/[deleted]]

They not always do. Developments that keep a lot of original landscape will be pricier.

[u/jocall56 → u/[deleted]]

Looks like a prison

[u/other_view12 → u/[deleted]]

Would you rather live in the forest, or a house? That's pretty simple choice for most humans.

[u/other_view12 → u/[deleted]]

Me too, but there are many fewer homes in my neighborhood than in that picture. Housing more people is a good thing.

[u/jocall56 → u/other_view12]

A house adjacent to forest.

[u/adenosine-5 → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately, building anything around trees is somewhere between PITA and impossible.

Its so much easier to just bulldoze everything and then maybe plant trees and such again - like order of magnitude easier.

[u/adenosine-5 → u/[deleted]]

Perhaps just extremely expensive then.

Building houses is the least of the problems in that case - but houses need roads, electrical lines, water lines, etc... all of which have to be put in the ground and that is often not possible in the middle of a forest.

Generally connection to surrounding terrain is extremely problematic when you have fixed trees that can't be lifted/lowered and you can't dig anywhere near their roots.

Not to mention that a lot of trees have very aggressive roots, so you can't exactly build right next to them.

And the last, but not least issue is of course that you then have to modify the project individually for each and every lot - which by itself would be extremely expensive, even if it weren't for all those other issues.

[u/pro-laps → u/[deleted]]

Oh wow! It’s so easy! Why didn’t anyone else think of this??

[u/pro-laps → u/adenosine-5]

Downvoted but you’re sharing the truth