Not long ago, the neighborhood where I live was all farm and forest, with a creek running through it and plenty of sky overhead. Red-tailed hawks rode the wind, eyeing the foxes that followed the rabbits through the twilight.
As I watched these animals, I have enjoyed thinking how I was sharing a place with creatures who first staked it out in days of prehistory.
Century after century passed and this spot of earth was theirs alone. Their lineage went beyond even the native peoples whose link to the wild was closer and dearer than ours, and who surely admired the birds just as I have.
I liked counting the hawks sitting high on the power poles that lined the railway, and hearing them call to each other as I brought in the groceries. At those moments, it was like I had become part of their world and history, so natural and so old. Their voices were timeless.
There were voices heard, too, at a public forum held in Greenville last week. It was held to draw public response to a state legislative commission's ideas on how to save North Carolina's land and water resources. These voices were talking money.
The commission proposed it will take $1 billion over five years for the state to invest in conservation and preservation efforts just to get the process started.
The group suggested a variety of funding sources to make this happen. Among these were property taxes, sales taxes, real estate fees, water fees and the like.
Farmers at the meeting argued that the proposals' tax implications would put an unfair financial burden on them. Home builders said increasing deed stamp fees would hurt their business, while real estate developers and representatives said home-buyers would suffer, too.
Some folks in the nursery industry said water-related fees were worrisome as were state land purchases, which ultimately would drive up property taxes and hurt everyone in the pocketbook.
But there were voices that said anyone who would share the benefit of land and water resources should also share the expense and maybe not worry so much about the bottom line but about what else we might be losing. The commission shared some facts:
North Carolina loses 277 acres of open land a day; and as our population continues to grow, large tracts of timber and farm land are being sold for development. (Watched any bulldozers clear-cutting lots lately?) The commission reported that the state has substantial investment in conservation and historical preservation, but development is catching up — and getting ahead — one subdivision at a time.
My neighborhood has gradually filled with houses over the last five years. It is very pleasant and comfortable.
Residents enjoy brisk walks and balmy bike rides. Children move from yard to yard, playing their games, walking their dogs. There are songbirds, too, sparrows, wrens and bluebirds.
But I don't see the hawks much now or hear their shrieks. As the houses have come, they have mostly moved on — after all those centuries — to new places, wilder places, to start over, I guess, to find new perches with unobstructed views.
If you go looking there are still such places in eastern North Carolina, where a raptor's voice is the only one you hear on the wind, at least for now. Those ancient peoples would smile at that.
But I'm going to miss the red-tails. Won't we all?
Al Clark is executive editor of The Daily Reflector. Tell him what you think at 252-329-9560 or at aclark@coxnc.com.
