To | Middlesex Project Start Page |
"In Defense of the Estabrook Woods"
by Molly Tsongas, Middlesex School, Class of 2000, President of Student Body
Published in "Fides, The Middlesex School Magazine," April 2000.
You see, it's like this. There is this big marble, and when you look into it, you are swept away with wonder. What you see is so complex and beautiful that you know that you could only be seeing visions of life itself. Swarms of colors, flickers of white light and infinite depth. Now, there is only one trick to making sure that this marble never simply turns into gray stone and loses its magic forever. The marble may never touch the ground. It must be passed along from hand to hand with care, and should one hand fall to hold onto the marble and let it fall, the marble turns to stone, and life itself is lost.
Our environment is this marble and each
generation is a hand. Our survival as a species is directly dependent on the
survival of the environment. Sometimes that concept is something we humans
like to pish-posh. And that is not surprising, seeing as every minute we are
becoming more and more detached from nature, interacting exclusively within
our man-made technological reality, even though we are, whether we admit it or
not, as natural as the trees. Should one generation view the environment as a
resource at our disposal and view environmental destruction as a right,
everyone will lose- all generations past, all generations in the future, and
the generation responsible for the tragedy.
Literally in our own back yard, we have an environmentally momentous controversy. On the one hand, there are those entrusted with the survival of the future of the school, a noble cause. On the other hand, there are those entrusted with the survival of the future of the wilderness, also a noble cause. The proposal: a 300-foot long, 32-foot wide bridge, slightly wider than Lowell Road. This development will extend over wetlands and lead to 28 acres of forest where there are plans for fields and/or tennis courts. Beyond that is another 45 acres, which will be accessible for development in 17 years. This bridge would be trespassing over the habitats of five endangered species, not to mention the multitudes of other creatures, and will be destructive to a myriad of plant species.
But this issue is not about acreage. To discuss the wilderness behind our school in those terms would be a travesty. It is possibly one of the most historically, ecologically, spiritually, educationally, scientifically, and environmentally significant tracts of land in Massachusetts. Many people ask what the big deal is if they only cut down that small portion of the woods. That comment sends up a big red flag in my mind that people do not understand the point of this whole endeavor. It's like when you have just eaten a whole plate of cookies except for one last one. You think to yourself, "Man, I am way too stuffed to eat that whole cookie," so instead you just break off half of the cookie. When you are finished with that piece you look at the plate and think, "well, I'll just break off half of the half" and you eat that piece. Then you look at the plate and there is only one tiny morsel left over and you think to yourself, "hey, its only one bite" and you pop into your mouth. Before you know it, the entire cookie is gone and all you are left with is a stomach-ache. It's the little pieces that in the end destroy the whole.
Yes, you have heard us say countless times that Estabrook is one of the largest green spaces left in Massachusetts. Thus more reason to say, "Hey, what's a few acres!" But take an aerial view of the woods in relation to Concord and you will see that in fact, the woods are very small. Take an even bigger aerial view of the woods in proportion to Massachusetts and you cannot see a thing. And yet, it is one of the biggest tracts of forest in Massachusetts. What does that say? It says that green spaces are diminishing. And guess what? Population is growing at an exponential rate and environmental crises are worsening by the hour. And these realities are those that people generally try to deny or ignore because they seem overwhelming. But ignoring them does not make them go away. At the very least, when we are presented with a situation where we can either ere on the side of the environment or ere on the side of our own personal interests, it is absolutely imperative that we see the larger picture.
Middlesex offers a prime example of the new age preservation agenda. National parks have been established and are now treasured. Next stop, saving the smaller regions of forest anywhere and everywhere they may still survive.
Furthermore, there is talk of using channels to connect the various green spaces so animals may travel safely from one spot to another. We forget that places like Estabrook are the only places animals have to live. They cannot live in houses and they cannot survive in small patches of trees. Humans may be in charge of this situation but animals have a basic need for good living conditions that do not threaten their lives, not to mention their existence.
Somehow this Estabrook controversy has the image of the youth of the community trying to uproot the longstanding good judgment of the trustees. Funny thing is, in the 1950's, Ernst Mayr, a famous Harvard biologist, had the vision of preserving the woods as an unparalleled resource and field station. Monk Terry, the second headmaster of Middlesex, entered into an oral agreement with the Town of Concord and Harvard University regarding Estabrook Woods, in pursuit of Mayr's vision. Landholders all over Concord signed over their land to contribute to this vision even though their land was everything to them; to send their children to college, they sold their land. Harvard put its 600 acres of land into preservation and convinced residents of Concord to sign over another 400 acres of land over into preservation. This agreement for the future of the woods was not even written down in paper. It was simply understood. But somewhere along the line, as the school's guardians changed hands, this vision was forgotten.
In actuality, the efforts and interests of the trustees are well intentioned. I, too, wish to see Middlesex continue to succeed as an educational institution. But Middlesex can and must do that without cutting down our woods. This is our time, our moment with the marble, let us for once do something for the greater good.