Blog 4: Injustice

In class on Monday we watched an eye opening documentary on the Colorado River and that it is shrinking at an alarming rate. While overuse has played a part, a significant portion of the reservoir decline is due to an ongoing drought, which started in the year 2000 and has led to substantial reductions in river flows. Most droughts are caused by a lack of precipitation. However, research shows that about one-third of the flow decline was likely due to higher temperatures in the Colorado River’s Upper Basin, which result from climate change.

    This documentary brought me back to a moment in my life and reminded me about the time my father tried to save the trees. In Westford there is a trail named the Tom Paul Trail. This trail sits right behind our house and provides lots of privacy for my family’s house, along with my neighbors who also lived on our private driveway. I possessed a special love for that trail, as I would escape my house to be alone in the woods. It made me feel at home being in the woods, isolated from everyone. I also enjoyed playing manhunt with my neighbors, every single day of the summer, from the time we woke up until dinner time, for three years straight. So as you can see, I had a special bond with the woods on the Tom Paul Trail.

However one day, some those woods were challenged and taken by a rotten developer. The rotten developer had a name and that was David Guthery. He wanted to buy 27 of the privately owned land, right behind our house and his goal was to develop 10 gigantic, million dollar homes. Luckily my dad was able to prevent him from obtaining all 27 acres, in the end he had 7 and had to donate 20 of it to the preservation. I was extremely upset walking though what felt like my woods, and having to see a huge house right on the trail I used to hide in with my friends. It felt as if the land had been infiltrated by massive man made structures, completely foreign to the natural world. My home did not feel quite the same anymore.