Braintree Sch. Fund Committee

CONSERVATION

by Gordon Campbell, Past President, BSFC

A Conservation Opinion
Saturday, December 09, 2000

A quote from book "The Lonesome Gods"
Louis L'Amour 1983

"Nor was I sure I wished it to become a great city(Los Angeles in 1850), for we who are among the first always yield reluctantly to the latecomers, seeing our meadows fade, our trees cut down, our horizons obscured. We who were the firstcomers accepted the dollar prices but bemoaned the loss of beauty, yet what was happening was inevitable, I suppose.

"Yet we must never forget that the land and the waters are ours for the moment only, that generations will follow who must, themselves, live from the land and drink that water. It would not be enough to leave something for them: we must leave it a little better than we found it.

"Never did a tree fall that I did not feel a pang, and rightly so, for when the trees are gone, man will also be gone, for without them we cannot live. The very air that we breathe comes from trees, and when they are gone, the air will thicken and men will die and our great towers of stone will fall away to rubble and there will be only weeds, and then grass to cover the unsightly mounds we leave behind."

This excerpt from Chapter 42 is written as the thoughts of a character in a fictional book by L'Amour, but obviously speaks this writers views about a particular section of the world and the people of the Old West in the United States.

Gordon F.Campbell's opinion closely follows in this vein--beware of failing in the area of Conservation, most particularly when it come to watersheds and forest and their preservation! Of particular note at this writing is the School Fund Committee property in the Five Corners neighborhood. In the year 1950, a vast amount of land west of Granite Street in Braintree was swampy land drained in natural fashion by trickling surface water, or, closer to Five Corners was second growth forest interpersed with farmed land. Some few will also remember the Avitabile Farm where now stands South Shore Plaza--long before there was an eight-lane route 128. What price progress? We channellize our rivers and streams to dispose of valuable water to our own detriment; the water sent directly to the ocean doesn't reach our reservoir, the water table drops and run-off becomes our concern as it fills our sewer system. Now we develop storm drains, again to dispose of water which we should be saving. Is there any wonder that we want, as individuals, to put in wells? This, again, lowers the great aquifers and takes the natural way of things out of our hands and poisons our own drinking water. Farm River is SUPPOSED to be a Class A river and pristine; I would be surprised if it could be classified Class C, when tested today, with run-off from all the hot-top we've coated our land with, and the great expanse of flat-roofed buildings.

Please consider this when you consider proposals forthcoming from the School Fund Committee.

Most sincerely,

Gordon F. Campbell