The town of Vail is moving rapidly toward approval of a large, subsidized employee housing project on the I-70 north frontage road in East Vail, despite the virtually certain loss of open space and bighorn sheep habitat. This would follow the loss of seasonal grazing habitat for a herd of elk pursuant to the “improvements\u201d of the Ford Park ballfields a few years ago.<\/p>\n
This is reminiscent of a popular children’s book with a powerful environmental message entitled “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein, published in 1964. The beautifully illustrated story describes the gradual ruination of a beautiful apple tree which yields, lovingly, to the relentless demands on its gifts of leaves, apples, shade, branches and trunk to make a boy who becomes a man “happy.” The giving tree\u2019s final gift is a stump for the old man to sit upon and rest in his old age.<\/p>\n
We should be concerned that the Town of Vail\u2019s relentless pursuit of development at the expense of open space and wildlife habitat \u2014 just parts of Vail’s appealing environment \u2014 will leave us with stumps to sit and rest on. And, as the story concludes, we’ll be happy, but not really.<\/p>\n
Joe McHugh<\/p>\n
Vail<\/p>\n