Developers Should Spare the Trees

While driving through Dutchess County today, I was reminded of a pet peeve in real estate that I have long meant to blog about: builders who cut every, single solitary tree down when they build a subdivision and then plant a few saplings in their place. It seems to be particularly bad in the Hudson Valley north of Westchester County. I know people cannot have a tree in their living room. What I don’t get is how you cannot leave 1 decent tree standing for acres and acres in order to build a few houses. And those 3 sick saplings they stick in the ground  are hardly a substitute for the proud trees that once stood there. 

It takes decades for the replacement trees to grow in. Mature neighborhoods shouldn’t take decades. One county over in Connecticut they have great neighborhoods where the builders built around mother nature, not on her grave. I hate a scorched Earth- it seems so barren and austere, especially when the immediate area surrounding the neighborhood is so rich with growth.  

There is nothing aesthetically pleasing about a barren landscape in a new subdivision. The way houses just stick out with no trees to frame them, shade them or accent them is antiseptic and unappealing. It is also a waste. I wish builders and developers who engage in this practice would cut it out, and I also wish that the municipalities that bug the rest of us about relatively minor issues in comparison would not allow it either.