The webpage for my webchat on forestry and carbon is now available at this link. I made a PowerPoint as an intro, so please take a look. You can just sign in as a guest under whatever name you please.
I visited Fort Christiana on the way home from the farm. It is one of those places worth seeing, but not worth going to see. You have to go down a gravel road and then you find … nothing. The fort is long gone. All that is left is the outline of the fort, a little toilet and some markers. You can see the gravel outline in this picture below.
If you Google Fort Christiana you will find the wrong place. There is a fort in Delaware by almost the same name. That was not a very important place and this place is even less. So if you want to know about Fort Christiana in Brunswick County, I am your lasts, best hope.
According to the signs, Virginia Royal Governor Alexander Spotswood built a five sided wooden fort near the Meherrin River in 1714. (Spotsylvania County VA is named for the governor.) It was an outpost on the edge of the Virginia Colony at that time designed to trade with the friendly Indians. Inside the Fort was an Indian school, with about 100 students. The Indian students inside the fort helped ensure continued good behavior of the local tribes.
The British withdrew support for the fort in 1718 and when William Byrd (an early member of that very prominent Virginia family and the ancestor of the current W. Virginia Senator Robert Byrd … or given how long that guy has been around, maybe it was him) passed through the region in 1728 he reported that the fort was abandoned. Not much of a history. There have been nearby roads that have been under construction for a longer time.
I don’t know why the picture of the sign turned out so green. That is not the real color. I must have had it on a strange setting.
The picture that I took of the monument was even worse, so I didn’t include it. The funny thing is that it was erected by the colonial dames. I know that dames is an old title of respect for ladies, but I can’t stop thinking of Frank Sinatra, “Guys and Dolls” or “South Pacific.” There’s nothing like a dame.
These are a few pictures from the Courthouse-Clarendon area of Arlington. When I first came into the FS, I used to walk through this area. There were a lot of little restaurants, some pawn shops and a lot of construction. It is very nice now. They made a lot of progress in twenty years and Arlington has done a very good job of transit oriented development.
This is the memorial tree to the boys of Arlington killed in World War I. Of course, back then they only had one world war so it didn’t have a number. It says the tree was planted in 1923. It doesn’t seem old enough. I wonder if it was replaced.
I went down to Norfolk for Virginia Forestry Association meeting. I have a lot to write from the meeting, but Norfolk itself was interesting. Among the attractions is the Battleship Wisconsin.
I didn’t know that the battleship Wisconsin was docked there but I really enjoyed the visit. You can find some of the details at this link.
Battleships were the symbol of power for almost a century. They were made obsolete by the advent of sophisticated airpower & precise missiles, at least that is the usual explanation. And it is true as far as it goes. But there is more and it becomes clear as you walk around the ship.
A battleship is very much a product of the mechanical age. It reminds you of an old factory and it is a giant machine in the early 20th Century sense. It is filled with precision instruments and designed to be run by machinists and engineers, lots of them. Loading the guns took big crews. Keeping the rust off the boat took big crews. Oiling the cogs and cranks took big crews. A modern ship doesn’t have to be so big to carry the firepower and it doesn’t need the really big crews to make it work.
As with factories on land, a lot of the tasks once done by vast crews of semi-skilled men are now done by machines. The precision devices are replaced by electronics. The calculations done by scores of engineers are now done instantly by computers. We can no longer afford battleships because we no longer can afford the big crews needed to run them and we no longer need them anyway since a much smaller package can pack a much bigger payload.
Above – the battleship deck is made of teak wood. It protected the steel deck below. I wonder how much it would cost for such a well constructed teak deck now. I don’t think I could afford even a small one at my house.
A battleship is beautiful and graceful. Like a medieval castle, which was also a complicated engine of war, it now seems more a work of artful engineering than a very large lethal weapon. But that is what it was. It is worth seeing for all the reasons above.
Above – battleships were classy. This is the silver set from the Wisconsin. It was a gift from the people of Wisconsin to the USN. My mother and father were taxpayers back then, so I guess my family helped buy it.
Below – the urban forestry meeting was held at the Fairfax County government center. Fairfax is the biggest and most populous county in Virginia. I was told that there are still some farms in the county, but I have not seen them. There are a lot of forested acres, however, both in private and public hands. I heard that the Fairfax School System plans to plant trees on some of their mowed places. This is good for the environment and saves on maintenance costs.
BTW – if you want to attend these sort of events and learn re forestry in Virginia, the best information aggregator is the Virginia Forest Landowner Update.
Urban forestry meetings attract a consistent demographic divided into two parts. The first segment is at or near retirement with time to pursue their interests unpaid. I guess this is where I fit in. Then there are the professional “tree people,” those involved with forestry, landscaping or local government make up the second group. There is essentially no ethnic diversity. Everybody looks like they walked out of a 1950 LL Bean catalogue. This may become a problem. A good part of Northern Virginia’s tree cover depends on the volunteer efforts of local citizens. Trees are too important to be the concern only of the dwindling LL Bean demographic. I have noticed, however, that the age ratios have remained consistent over time. Maybe people just don’t get interested in these sorts of things until they reach a certain stage of life and maybe this problem is not a problem.
I am interested in forests but many of my fellow attendees seem more interested in trees. These are not the same concerns. Some of my colleagues personify individual trees. I agree that some extraordinary trees need special protection, but the forest trumps individual trees and forest health depends on cutting some trees. Somebody even used the term “tree-rescue” in referring to moving trees from a place being cleared for a highway interchange. This implies another “rights mindset,” and a fundamentally anti-ecology theology.
Below is the natural range of the loblolly pine range. The range extends as far as New Jersey and the tree can survive if planted farther north, it is essentially a south-eastern species.
The Rappahannock River is roughly the boundary between Northern & Southern Virginia both culturally and ecologically. I have a foot in both regions, since I live in Northern Virginia, but my forest is in the South. In suburban Northern Virginia, a few acres or a couple of trees are a big deal. Down in Brunswick County foresters don’t pay much attention to anything less than forty acres. In the Virginia suburbs, trees are usually seen as part of a garden landscape. In the in Southern Virginia they are timber in a forest. In the North, tree lovers look toward the Middle Atlantic States. South of the Rappahannock, where the southern pine forest ecosystem starts and then stretches to the Gulf of Mexico, it is natural to look toward the Carolinas. There was a little grumbling at the meeting that southern forest interests kept Virginia in the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern District, but I think that is where we belong from the forestry point of view.
Some people at the meeting really hate English ivy and often voice their feelings. They want it declared a noxious week and banned, and evidently tried w/o success to get the State of Virginia to do that. I understand that English ivy could be characterized as an invasive, but it is not that hard to control and it serves useful purposes. For example, nothing that I see around here holds soil better in ditches, since the plant can root in the firm soil and form a network of vines in the erodible dirt on the sides and in the bottom. This is especially true near paved roads and driveways. When people advocate ripping out ivy, they do not provide real solutions. Sure, native plants might be better (although I am unenthusiastic about poison ivy), but they won’t grow in the disturbed conditions and soil structures that human activity creates. It is just dreamy to think we can – or will – create and sustain the conditions that will allow the beautiful native diversity we would all want in theory. We need solutions we can actually live with. You can use Virginia creeper or wild grape, but those tend to climb into the canopies worse than English ivy does. Those vine covered trees we see along the Metro line and along I-66 are being harmed and killed by native vines. English ivy in many cases may be the best obtainable solution.
Besides, it is pretty and well-suited to the area around Washington. I don’t feel bad about the English ivy. It also seems to displace poison ivy, which is a native plant but it provokes rashes in about 80% of the population. Native is not always better.
The neighborhood was very different when we bought our townhouse eleven years ago. Actually we bought a piece or red dirt and the promise that they would build a townhouse. Ours was the first new development of its kind in our immediate area. At that time it was a kind of pass over zone. There were nice neighborhoods all around, but we had some gas stations, warehouses and fast food outlets. It was a low rise neighborhood. But it had two big assets. There was the Dunn Loring Metro stop. We bought because the Metro was only a seven minute walk from our front door. It was also a central place on the way to Tyson Corner.
The Metro was the real key.
The Dunn Loring Metro opened in 1986, but for the first ten years of its life was almost exclusively a park and ride. Our town house complex was one of the first walking distance developments. When we bought, there were big plans to in-fill the place and increase the density to encourage transit oriented development. We had to take that on faith, but it did start to happen. Since we bought, a big town house complex developed across from the Metro. There are also high rise condos near the Metro and down Gallows Road and we have a Marriott Courtyard Hotel. But the immediate area, the one we saw outside our door, didn’t change much. It was the ugly mix of cheap warehouses and metal buildings. Now the big changes are on the way.
Most of the buildings across the street are torn down and the others soon will be. I don’t mourn the loss, except I miss the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The plans are to build something like fifteen stories high. Condos and hotels will be on the top floors with retail on the ground floors. The plan is sound. I hope it works out. Our neighborhood will be a lot better. Our town house complex will go from one of the densest developments to one of the least dense. Don’t know how many more years we will be here. The irony will probably be that we will move away just about the time the neighborhood gets walkable and nice, but after we retire and no longer have the daily need for the metro, the high value property will be less attractive. When we chose to live near the Metro, we paid more for a smaller space in order to get the better commute. That logic will probably change.
Above are the old buildings being torn down. It takes only a day or so. The buildings int he background were built a couple years ago. Ones like that will go up. They are not so pretty, but they have retail etc. And they are better than what they replace.
People own lots of things but we form special relationships with the land we own. Wound up in land is the concept of connection of our ancestors’ to the earth and our legacy for future. There is no surprise that people have deep feelings for land that has been in their families for generations, but it is astonishing how fast the same connections form with adopted land.
I have loved forests and wanted to have my own part of one for as long as I can remember. But buying a forest is not something most people do. Most forest owners inherit them. I would have to borrow the money to buy my forest so I couldn’t afford to do it as a mere indulgence, so I started to study on the economics of forestry. I was surprised and encouraged to learn that forestry was an excellent, if illiquid, investment. According to Forbes magazine, timber investments from 1990 – 2007 timber produced a compounded annual return of 12.88%. You just cannot beat that if you have the time and the inclination to wait for nature to take its course.
Most people who invest in forestry do so through REITs and TIMOs. That option didn’t appeal to me. That makes forestry just another investment. My logic was the reverse. I was looking for a lifestyle choice, not a mere investment vehicle. I wanted to own a forest and I needed to justify it as an investment, not the other way around. And I wanted my forest that I could stand on and manage. After investigating the economics, I decided that I felt secure enough in my judgment on this matter to base my retirement savings on growing trees rather on a capricious stock market.
Of course finding the right forest is harder to do than buying stocks or mutual funds. I needed to find a place close enough to my house that I could visit but far enough from Northern Virginia that I could afford the land. My research took me to Southside Virginia on the Piedmont south of Richmond. This is the land of the loblolly pine. The soils of the region were denuded by generations of cotton and tobacco farming and the land has been returning to forest for more than a century. The decline of the tobacco industry, which pushed people off the land and the distance from growing cities kept land prices lower.
Successful forestry on one tract of land requires successful forestry in the neighborhood. Wood is heavy and hard to transport. Unless you have enough forested acres in a roughly 60-100 mile radius to sustain a forestry industry and mills, you really cannot grow trees profitably. The forests of Southside Virginia meet this need. I knew this was where I would find my forests.
I called a rural real estate broker called Rick Rawlings in Lawrenceville. He didn’t think I was serious when I called him and probably didn’t change his mind when I showed up at his office in Lawrenceville. He wanted to steer me to small tracts of land suitable to building a getaway cabin. I told him that I didn’t care for such things. I wanted a place for forestry – real forestry. He told me that he had some tracts that were 100+ acres, but they were isolated and it would cost me a fortune to bring in things like electricity. “You would never be able to build,” he warned. He smiled when I told him that is exactly what I wanted.
He showed me several tracts of well developed timberland and then told me about a recent clear cut. It was 178 acres of clearcut plus 2, but there was good site preparation and I could see the tops of the little pines poking above the weeds & old brush. I also liked the streams and the mature hardwoods left near them. That was my first tract.
The first thing an absentee landowner needs to do is get to know the neighbors and make some local allies. They are the ones who can protect your land … or not. Fortunately, the land had a hunt club already associated with it and they were happy just to keep on with the previous relationship. The hunt club maintains the gates and the no trespassing signs. Their presence on the land also discourages squatters or some clowns planting drugs, which can be significant problems. In this rural area, everybody knows everybody else and they all knew about me. I had to overcome a bit of a stereotype when I drove up with my Honda Civic Hybrid, but when they figured out that I knew about the trees and wanted them to keep on hunting, everything was okay. A couple of the guys took me around and showed me the various thinning and timber operations they were working on. When I got stuck in the mud, the local farmer came and pulled me out with his tractor. I was really interested in hearing their stories about the land and their experiences.
I also joined the Virginia Forestry Association and got the communication director job for the tree farm project. My job mostly consists of writing an article for the Virginia Forests magazine four times a year and I get to interview and write the story of the tree farmer of the year. I learned a lot from these things. Forestry is kind of an art form. Local conditions make a big difference and by local I mean difference of a few yards or a change in the slope of a hill. The more successful tree farms you see, the better feel you get for understanding your own. I have never met or even heard about a tree farmer who didn’t love his forest, and everybody you meet is eager to talk about their particular places. I know I am.
I don’t depend on my forest for current income, so I have the luxury of experimentation. I have done pre-commercial thinning and biosolids application. I am reasonably certain that these things will make the forest grow faster, be a better place for wildlife and just look better, but I am not sure it will actually be worth the outlay in terms of actual income.
Anyway, I have been happy with my forestry investment choice. You cannot rush the trees, so I sometimes wish I had got into the business sooner and been further along. But I then I remember that I couldn’t. Besides the obvious lack of money (or more correctly credit), I didn’t have enough understanding of the forestry business. Liking trees is not sufficient. I also do not think I could have done this deal in the pre-internet world. It is amazing what you can find on the Internet and all the research you can you do. For example, Southern Regional Forestry Extension has online courses. You can download these on ITunes.
I will be back in Iraq soon enough and will presumably write more exotic posts, but for now I am enjoying a life a little more ordinary so please excuse my more mundane posting. As you can tell, this spring a lot of my time is being spent my forestry matters. You gotta have a hobby.
Below – the trees are a little tight in places.
Chrissy and I went to Southside Virginia to check into pre-commercial thinning of our pines and maybe get some biosolids next year. We currently have around 1000-1500 loblolly per acre. That is way too many. We were lucky that we had a very high survival rate and we got a good number of volunteers, but now it is time to reduce that to around 500 an acre. The State of Virginia in its wisdom is offering cost-share this year, in order to fight the southern pine beetle (too many trees are less robust and more likely to be attacked by disease and insects), so we will have it done. It will shorten the rotation by a couple of years, improve wildlife habitat, help the stand resist the pine beetle and make it easier to walk around the property. It is just a good idea, like thinning a flower garden except a lot bigger.
Below is the best wildlife plot so far. It is almost completely filled in.
We also checked out our recently planted wildlife plots. We have five plots; the biggest one is about an acre, planted in white clover and chicory. It adds significant diversity to the tree farm and makes the local animals healthier. I also like the look of the meadow to break up the landscape. Everything is coming in very well. There are all sorts of animals on the farm anyway.
Our pine lands were clearcut in 2003. Southern pine requires full sunlight, so this is the only managment option. It doesn’t look good the first year, but a clearcut plus around five years is one of the most productive and diverse wildlife habitats around, especially if you do a few things like wildlife plots and corridors. Southern pine fills 58% of America’s demand for timber. It is a fully sustainable resource and our pine lands are great places for wildlife & recreation.
The stream management zone have the biggest trees, mostly beech, oak and tulip-poplar with a holly understory and a fern forest floor.
We have around 30 acres in stream management zones and these provide corridors of mixed hardwood through the pine plantations, while preserving water quality. My water is clear, now that we have addressed some of the erosion issue at a couple places. Our water eventually runs into Albermale Sound in NC via Genito Creek, which runs through our land.The boys and I spread 40 tons of rip-rap last year and the year before. The banks have stabilized and vegetation is growing profusely where it the soil used to run into the water. I am surprised also to find little fish in some of the pools. Life is surprising that way. Another important thing we have is “vernal ponds” AKA mud holes with water. These ponds are important because they allow amphibians like frogs and salamanders to breed. The pond must be intermittent, i.e. dry up sometimes so as not to support a fish population that would eat the eggs. People tend not to like vernal ponds, because they are well…mud holes. They drain them and fill them in, thereby helping to doom the local amphibian population.
Below is native honeysuckle. It blooms this time of year and brightens up the forest
The good thing about forestry is that you can have fun, make good investments, grow trees and be environmentally responsible all a the same time.
Below – Chrissy & me in front of one of wildlife plots. This one is well within the pine plantation and will probably be one of the better ones in the fullness of time. Wildlife plots spread out in the wood with irregular sides are the most productive. This will eventually have a soft edge of taller growth. The clover and chicory will fill in. We wanted to break up the compressed dirt. Nothing could grow in the compressed clay until it was broken up an limed. This plot was created in October. Recent much needed rain will help it grow.
The kids like Busch Gardens because of the roller-coasters. I like them too, but good amusement parks are places where you see experimental urban planning techniques and methods of cueing control. First the amusments.
Along side is Espen arm wresting the machine. He won, but it still cost 50 cents.
We went on the new ride called the Griffon. It has a fantastic vertical drop. Roller-coasters keep getting better. I recall the first time I went to Busch Gardens about twenty years ago. The best they could do back then was the Loch Ness Monster. My favorite is Apollo’s Chariot because you feel like you are going to fly out when you hit the high points.
The park is designed around a European theme. They have Italy, Germany, England, Ireland and France. Busch Gardens in Florida has an Africa theme.
Below is the Ireland part of Busch Gardens.
Now for the urban planning. Amusement parks create the illusions of space and distance. They do this by using travel time and changes of venue. Most of us cannot measure straight line distance very well. Instead, we use the proxies of time and effort. We also notice changes in scenery, especially when we pass through some kind of threshold such as a bridge, arch or gate. When you walk between and among the various parts of a well designed park, you never get to go the straight line. You often have to take some kind of transportation, usually a train, that makes it seem like you are embarking on a journey. You also cross a lot of thresholds. Bridges, arches and gates are placed strategically to make you think you have entered a different place. It works.
Below – there are nice gardens at Busch Gardens. One reason I like that park is that it is pretty.
Amusement parks are some of the places where various methods are best applied, but they are the basis of all good urban and park planning. I read a very good book re called A Pattern Language where the authors tried to figure out the patterns that make landscapes and cities pleasant. The book is full of suggestions that apply across cultures. I found a website re. You have to be member to get all the benefits, but it has some nice picture.
Below are Espen and Alex, practicing their usual looks, in Busch Gardens England.
At the risk of sounding like a philistine, IMO most great cities have that amusement park atmosphere and were essentially built with that same idea in mind. That is why people like to go there. Go to Venice, the Vatican, Paris or Vienna and tell me you cannot see that. It is just that in those days the amusements were for the princes and fat cats. At first I just thought amusement parks copied these places, but the closer I looked the more I understood that these were indeed amusement parks only on a grander scale and had developed more snob-appeal from just being around a long time. Just as in a modern Disney World or Busch Gardens, patronage allowed architects, engineers and artists to experiment with new forms. If the popes or the Medici could have built a roller coaster, they would have had one. Imagine them whooping it up on the drop. A roller coaster is a wonder of engineering and physics and requires an understanding of human perceptions and psychology. It is no small thing, physically or intellectually. I don’t doubt that Leonardo da Vinci designed one or two of them, but like the other things he drew, they didn’t go into production.
Below is the wisteria. Grows fast. Notice the arch as you pass from one section to the next.
For example, a path with uneven width (i.e. with wider spots and curves) is more appealing than a straight road. People all over the world like structures with galleries or porches. A well designed house offers a transition area from outside space to inside space. We are attracted to houses with a sheltering roof. A room with a corner with windows on both walls is nicer than one with windows only on one. Most of the things are obvious WHEN they are pointed out. Unfortunately, many of our modern cities violate almost all the precepts of a comfortable place to live. In recent years, we have designed our cities for the convenience of the automobile and make humans second class inhabitants in our cities. It doesn’t have to be that way and we can learn from what they do at quality amusement parks and public gardens.
Below is Busch Garden’s Italian street.
Some communities are being designed with the human principle in mind. Unfortunately, they tend to be only upscale places where ordinary people cannot afford to live. They also tend to run up against zoning rules. Recently, we also have the added permutation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Most of the nicest places in my favorite cities such as Krakow, Vienna or Istanbul would never pass the tests of accessibility. In theory, you could build a neighborhood as charming as some of those we find in great old cities, but modern rules would not permit it. However, you might be able to get an erzatz version as in Busch Gardens. That is not so bad.
Below are Alex and Espen entering the German section. Notice again the distinct entry.
Re housing, I read an article in this month’s Wilson Quarterly about housing. The author was Witold Rybczynski, who wrote a very good book called City Life that I read a couple years ago. Witold Rybczynski says that housing is so expensive because of all the restrictions governments place on land use and building requirements. Places where the red tape is the strongest, such as the New England and the West Coast, have much higher home prices. It is not simply a matter of greater demand, but also of artificially restricted supply. Builders are complicit in this, although you can see why they would be almost forced to do it. If a parcel of buildable land costs a lot, it just makes sense to build a big, expensive house there to make it worth the effort. Many people have more house than they need, but they have been convinced that they need even more. I recommend both the article and the book. Unfortunately, neither is available online, so you have to look at them in the old fashioned paper way (Wilson Quarterly is worth the subscription, BTW), but I did find a good interview with author.
Below is Roman Rapids at Busch Gardens. You get wet, but it was hot so good. Only Alex and I went. Mariza took the picture. Espen paid a quarter to try to squirt us from the side, but missed.
PS – this is a little off topic, but as long as we are talking re things that make life work, I also found a good article re freshwater. This is the link.
Below – the kids don’t like to have their pictures taken.
IMO – the recuperation part of R&R is getting a chance to think about things besides work, so this is what I have been doing.
Above – Mariza and Sponge Bob.
Below – Espen got a gum package that gave a shock when you tried to take one. He couldn’t understand why he got no takers. We are all suspicious of him bearing gifts.
Above is the interchage at 495 and 66 – Richmond or Baltimore. That building in the middle is the Dunn Loring Metro Station, so you get to see several parts of the transit puzzle.
They are building “hot lanes” on I-495 near my house. Hot lanes are special lanes where people pay a premium to drive. The price is based on the traffic conditions. When there is a lot of traffic, the price is higher. This means that people choose to trade time for money and travel time is more predictable.
We need to address traffic congestion and building more or wider roads won’t work. Charging for use based on demand makes so much sense. Currently we allocate space on the road by making people wait in line. It is the same way the Soviet Union distributed bread with the same result.
I am interested in these kinds of innovative traffic solutions, so I went down to the Virginia Dept of Transportation (VDOT) information session at Luther Jackson Middle School not far from my house. There were around 200 people at the meeting. The most boisterous among them (us) expressed outrage at the hot lanes. Nobody wants any new roads in his neighborhood and people complained that hot lanes were just ways to let the rich avoid traffic.
It is a challenge of direct democracy. We experienced the same sort of thing in New Hampshire. Our community wanted to put in a sewer system, but some of the old guys figured out (correctly) that they would not live long enough to justify the initial investment, so old Mr. Parker or old Mrs. Winthrop got up and complained. Nobody wanted to cross them, so nothing happened. Some of my neighbors at the VDOT meeting wanted to stop this project. Fortunately, the VDOT people are made of sterner stuff, or maybe they don’t care as much re public attitudes. Hot Lanes WILL be built in N. Virginia. There are already hot lanes on I-394 in Minneapolis, I-25 in Denver, SR-91 in Orange County, I-15 in San Diego & I-10 in Houston, Texas, but Virginia’s is evidently going to be the biggest private-public partnership for hot lanes in the world. Read more about Virginia hot lanes at this link.
Actually, I am not sure what the real attitude of my fellow Virginians is re hot lanes. The loudest people complained loudly and used the pronoun “we” very liberally. After the meeting, I talked to some people who seemed less opposed. Nobody likes a new road in their yard, but many people are reasonable and understand that this particular project is good.
It reminds me of the old joke. The Lone Ranger & Tonto are fighting a group of Indians and losing. The Lone Ranger says, “It looks like we are surrounded, Tonto.” Tonto replies, “What is this ‘we’ Kemosabi?”
Chrissy attended a similar meeting at the same time I was doing the hot lanes. Hers was re new buildings near the metro. We (CJ and I) favor density near the metro. It is good for the environment and good for our community, but current residents are often against it. They want to shut the door behind themselves.
Our views on development generally make Chrissy and me as popular as skunks at a garden party, at least among the activists who just assume the local residents will toe the anti-development line. But I think we are doing the right thing. Greater density near the metro and hot lanes are solutions that address the problems of traffic and congestion. Developing where we are means saving farms and forests farther away and helps use all that expensive infrastructure. The alternative, just opposing change, solves no problems, although it might make our lives temporarily easier. But it is sort of like the Mr. Parker or Mrs. Winthrop attitude.
