There is a forest near where I live and recently I've been thinking back to a day, maybe 2 years ago, when I took my son's dog into those trees for a walk. I made the above snapshot of my four-legged hiking buddy standing peacefully in the ferns, sheltered by the ivy-covered woods.
Though it’s private land, others around here seemed to enjoy visiting the forest as well. Teenage girls from down the road took their horses there and trails developed. I’d see joggers emerging from the trees after finishing what must have been a very pleasant run.
At night I’d hear coyotes yipping and singing as they hunted on that land. We humans used the forest as a place of recreation but for the coyotes it was habitat, probably filled with mice and other good coyote stuff.
Several months ago the guy who owns the forest showed up in a big fancy truck. In the West there’s a certain status a man seems to be granted based on the truck he drives. The landowner’s truck probably cost fifty or one hundred thousand dollars. The truck was big and black and had a crane mounted on it.
The landowner began working in the forest. He’s a logger and he told me he wanted to capture a market. The trees came down with businesslike precision. Now the young girls have lost their trails and they ride their horses on the side of the road. They and the joggers compete for space with cars.
The nights are quiet. I guess the coyotes have moved on. Eventually more men will capture more markets. The coyotes, having lost their habitat, will go after chickens and someone will shoot them as a nuisance.
I went past the forest yesterday on my bike. I stopped in the road and made another snapshot, documenting the way the forest looks now.
That guy sure has a fancy truck.
