Letter to the Editor
Trees removed
Published Sunday, June 22, 2008
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Stumble It!June 18, 2008
To the editor:
I was saddened to see the few remaining large trees removed from the intersection of College and Johansen. I would much prefer to see those natural, tall, white spruce and birch trees, then some artificial landscaping or one row of parking.
To whomever/whatever: For shame.
Community Discussion
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Its so ugly now.
Give it time. Someone is sure to come up with a government grant to beautify the area. They will plant a few trees at $500,000.00 each.
They tore down paradise and put up a parking lot. Seems to be happening more and more to Alaska.
Maybe all the trees being cut down around town can go to making a nice big log cabin for all the homeless our local government officials and military hate so much. I'm sure all those dangerous homeless people would be far less of a threat to our armed forces if they were all gathered together in one big log warehouse.
cmon, its not like the intersection of college and Johansen was some kinda utopia, you know how many trees were cleared for the Johansen itself? I remember long before the Johansen was even there and I'll bet most people commenting on this do not.
Think how many trees were cleared for all the houses you live in and roads you drive on. how many trees were cleared for the farms that grow the vegetables you eat, and the meat we consume doesn't grow on trees either. So please stop whining about the poor trees in town, they're just ornamental,"something pretty to look at" and are destined to feel the teeth of a saw at some point anyway.
I used to fly my airplane in and out of Phillips Field, the sight of the Johannson Expressway today between Peger and University Ave. I remember how many folks were pleased to have a new road between the West and East side of town. You "Newbie-Cheechakos" have no idea how it was here in the early 70's. I think you would be surprised how primitive it was.
Silly Utopia Loves!! Ya, get over yourself! Poor wittle trees and their pwitty wittle weaves! YOU SILLY LITTLE TREE HUGGERS!
Dont you know what that sound is...why it is big sterile box stores going up, now that is a look I can get into! Black pavement, cement, flashy signs and cars...no, no, trucks everywhere!!
We dont need your "prnamental" wittle trees here in thes them parts!! (like the "prnamental" play on words!!)
We want flash, chainsaw-ripping asphalt till it meets the horizon here in the golden city! Anything else is..well just stop whining!
Yup, something man-kind can be really proud of, MCDONALDS, CHILIS and Big Bank buildings...let-er-rip!!!! YouMustBConfused
...let me do everyones work for them and type up yur rebuttal!!
Hey YMBC!! What do you want...little shaded foot paths everywhere with your Brickenstocks and Pituale scents and whatnot!! Your kind make me sick...not sick like the feeling I get after 3 round meals at McD's, Chilis and Boston Market that cost me and the family more than most good restaurants...but the sick feeling you libruls give me every time you spout off in your nonsense about making this world a better place to live! Why I never in all my life been so mad as when I have to read your tirades about the injustices of the world.
Dont you know I like MY world in a neat little bow...while I am here I want to be able to do anything, say anything and be anything I want and TA-H@#$ with anyone else...including my childrens future or anyone else's!! I also want to bask in the warm glow on knowing it is all in Gods design that I feel this way and if he did'nt want BLACK TOP, BOX STORES he would with one mighty hand wipe them off the face of the earth!! Kind of like in the mid-west right now but I think that is happening because of you LIBRULS and your wickd ways!!
In short, go burn a bush!! And I dont mean that in any illegal or presidential way in any shape or form!!
Happy!!...man it is hard to think like these guys...so thankful there are fewer and fewer!!
yeah yeah, some people are so selective in their superiority
they like everything so so, and anybody that changes their perfect world is something less than they. so sad to see a tree fall that you like to look at, but think nothing of the trees that fell to build your house or, like I said- make way for the farms so we can have all our groceries laid out for us all neat and pretty to buy, so convenient it makes me sick.
the trees in question were mangled so that they are of little use for fuel. Love inc. a local charity takes donations of firewood to be used in winter for those in need, if they must be cut donating the firewood is much better than deliberate destruction
Anyone else remember when that whole area was a pipe yard? Now the trees are gone again. I don’t see that it’s a big deal, it is private land. I wish the city would require sidewalks, bike paths and parks on any large construction projects. I'm tired of the profit in a box stores blighting the area with no benefit.
YMBC,
I have to congratulate you on your use of Satire (at least I think it's satire). I think I can recognize satire - sometimes - but I usually can't write it (at least not nearly as well as you do).
I don't think I agree you most of the time but that's one of the things that good satire accomplishes - it leaves you wondering, "Just what did he (or she) really mean by that?" Did he really mean it the way it came out or was he ridiculing me because I do think that way (at least a little bit)?
I can't help but wonder, sometimes, if "LIBRULS" (sic) really think I'm stupid and illiterate just because I don't agree with them. Do you?
"YMBC" seems like a loud person given the abundant use of, exclamation points!!
I am left confused by YMBC's rant!.
Trees grow back!, they always do and always will long after were gone!, Fairbanks will go back to nature and all the concrete and steel and man made materials will be reintegrated into the natural ecosystem!, and you cant say plastic didn't come from nature!!, where did the base compounds come from? space!?
!!!
I drove by there yesterday. And shook my head. The City's got a landscape ordinance. The City also needs to follow regulations to reduce soil erosion - and is required by regulation to insist that private citizens and contractors do the same.
I saw not a single tree left standing, and lots of dust swirling around yesterday as I drove by. And thought, shame, shame.
I don't know the reasons why all the trees were felled - to make way for more commercial development in that area, to get rid of a patch of woods the homeless can hide from the police in, for firewood. I don't know. But really, they could have accomplished any of these objectives and still left a few of the nicer trees standing.
Oh well.
I go far enough back, that I remember when Goldstream Valley was logged. Lots of trees now. Just be thankful we haven't had any big time fires taking out trees so far this season. Reminder make sure you have a fire break around your home, those trees aren't so pretty when they are burning.
READ THIS!!!! OR I WILL BE ANGRY!! LOL
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/06...
Kinda captures it for ya dont it?
There's still time, YMBC. Confess your sins and accept Sam Walton as your savior and super saver. He's coming back any day now to lead his followers to that great big box store in the sky. Do you really want to be Left Behind, paying unreasonable prices to local merchants?
I want to share the low-priced love of Sam Walton's forgiveness with you, YMBC, but you won't accept it. You hate Wal-Mart. And you can't hate Wal-Mart without hating God. That's why I have to hate you so much. It's the only way I can share Sam Walton's perfect love. Why don't you understand, this YMBC? I can only conclude that you must be confused.
Indeed, remember the big Yellowstone fires- they let fuel build up for decades, swatting out natural fires before they had a chance to burn all the dead and invasive underbrush until there was so much burnable material that when a fire got going in that hot summer the firefighters were powerless to stop it. It was a hard lesson well learned and now controlled burns are prescribed regularly to keep our forests healthy.
Crumudgeon-
You have said it perfectly. (I especially like "your savior and super saver".)
Now, what about those trees?
Dr. C., once again, belly-roaring laughter erupts from my midst from something you've written!
Heck with Yellowstone, remember Big Lake and what happen to folks living on Haystack just a few years ago.
No, Never!! I am so angry and I'm not gonna take it anymore!! That is how US PEOPLE think...we turn a blind eye to the easy road and take the one less traveled!!
SAM and his minions can have their box-store religion I am not going to bow my head to his or any other false god and its GOLDEN ARCHES opps STATUES!
You see the world is full of questions and very few answers…some need answers, it makes them feel good. When I see the removal of every god-for-sacken birch and aspen I too shake my head. But you cant blame them…it is just easier to take them all down. It costs money and time to try to keep trees in these types of areas. The long term affect will be apparent. Some but not all people in the Golden City will decide they too wont shop in these areas. It is a hard decision but in the end the statement is made. Judging from what I read here in the comments there are people who just want the easy route in life…more power too-em. But like it or lump it, a large and larger portion of this great country is waking up from their slumber, they are looking around and they DON’T like what they see. They are begining to see how all of this is connected and what a few say is just a dust pile, many others start to realize that it represents what is wrong with this country and they start to pay attention. Hopefully some day the road less traveled starts to open up and get a little less rocky…HA I know, I know…soon I will want pavement on that road you say!!!
My response is wake up start looking around, think for yourself and then we can talk about pavement. I do see a middle ground…I will meet ya there after you wipe away the sleepers.
NOW WAKE UP!!! @#$$#!!
586,000 square miles in this state, and your whining about 1 of them.
586,000 square miles in this state were mowed down by bulldozers!! I am outraged!! Oh...it was a fire you say? What is he talking about then? Oh, he is just whining you say...I get it!
Thanks
My husband is waiting for the Arbys and Orange Julius. When they open we will be able to find all the husbands. A nice Red Lobster would be good.
All kidding aside. People move from places they are tired of then try to change their new neighborhoods into their old.
I know in Las Vegas people moved there to get away from their alergies only to plant the same trees there that caused their alergies. We are just never happy.
The sad thing about this little patch of trees is that they previously cleared all the rest of that area, and left a swath of trees standing, giving the appearance and impression that they recognized the value of a visual barrier in front of the shopping area. They actually gave the impression that someone cared a little bit about aesthetics. It was a nice touch. Or so many thought.
Oh, well.
You know what I have found? All around town a can not point to one project and say hey that really looks nice. I was almost there with the court house but they sheathed it in very expensive concrete looking slabs. Why pay more for an eyesore? Doyon estates…let me count the problems crummy pavement, no sidewalks , no bike paths, no playgrounds. If this is premium in-town living I'm moving out. We really need a building department with vision and a City Council ready to push for a better Fairbanks. Mowing down a grove of trees to put in a park and playground with bike access is fine by me. Vote for a better future!!! I vote for people not parties so bash both directions you will hit me on both sides.
Aside from the clear cutting, I noticed yesterday while driving down the Johansen that the landscaping that is there doesn't include any evergreen type trees. They are all deciduous, so it looks nicely landscaped for about 3 months a year.
I think aside from requiring landscaping and tree barriers a certain percentage of all the landscaping should be required to be evergreen types so there are year round benefits.
There should be some sort of "law" that requires a Business section to DONATE the trees as Firewood source OR cabin material to such organizations that HELP the needy when no one else cares rather than bringing in dozers and mulchers and Hyrdoaxes (sp?)that leaves ugly torn up wood at the surface of the ground where nothing will be built anyhow for many years or that lies just outside of the parking lot areas...... Im all for leaving SOME tree's... lets work on keeping Alaskan Cities beautiful.
I know more people on the Internet that one of their BIG DREAMS is to come up to Alaska ..Land of the Last Frontier. Those that HAVE made it up here to visit rave about its beauty unmatched by any other place they have been to...however as more and more people from the Lower 48 come up..they end up bringing the SAME mentality they abhor themselves , up to Alaska and be they business or buisness minded people..tend to do the very thing that has desecrated and demolished the visual beauty they USED to have in their states.
Its sad.....
I was born in the 70's, been to the states a few times (more than enough). People move up here and do what they do in the states, buy a house and start out all nice and quiet, then, before you know it want to start ordering things about as they see fit,"where I come from we do it like this!".
Alaska is big but has no room for people who feel that they need to come up here and try to take over, a couple of trees downtown get chopped and people are up in arms, I am no redneck but you yippies-(yuppie-hippie) driving your brand new forty thousand dollar subaru's, buying very expensive organic food and walking around looking at hardworking normal people driving a vehicle they can afford to pay FOR instead of make payments ON, all superior like your organic homegrown crap doesn't stink need to wake up and realize that sticking feathers up your organic-butts do not make you chickens.
I understand exactly why they removed the trees. It disrupted the visual flow from the box stores to the box cars to the box lunch. Where do trees fit in that scenic drive? It is an industrial area. So we should each go out of town dig up a tree and replant the whole area so we can walk down the street to the new forest and enjoy nature in our own Golden Heart City.