Saving the Forests

On a vacation with my aunt, we found ourselves lost in the forest next to her house. We heard loud noises of what sounded like a machine and saw multiple excavators and bulldozers in the middle of the forest. We were both confused about what was going on and asked the people there only to find out they were knocking down a large mass of trees to build a water park. They thought it would be a great idea to build a water park in the middle of a forest because it has never been done before.

The semester in high school before this vacation I took an environmental science class, so I knew how awful this was for the environment. I learned that destroying trees can lead to many problems in the environment around it. These trees which are being cut down take away shelter, food, water, and other resources animals living there need to survive.

For the next couple of days, I kept asking myself, does anybody really want to destroy nature and kill all these helpless animals? That is when I realized the workers might not have grasped the harm they were doing.

It was a long shot, but I told my aunt, and we came up with a plan. We contacted a few of the environmental organizations near where my aunt lived and the first to answer back was Capitol Land Trust. We met in person the next day and came up with a more fixed decision.

Four days later we had set up the meeting and decided to have the CEO of Capitol Land Trust, Bill Robinson, run the meeting because the manager would recognize my aunt and me. The manager and about ten of the top people in the construction company showed up. Instead of showing a presentation about a construction project offer, Bill talked about what cutting down trees would do to the environment.

All the employees had the same confused look on their faces and after a minute or two my aunt and I came in and explained to them what was going on. The manager did not want to deal with us and was about to leave. But as he was walking out the door one of his partners grabbed his hand and said, “let’s hear them out.” Because of that we were able to finish the presentation and just as I expected they were not aware of the harm done to the environment.

The city, Capitol Land Trust, and the construction company all talked it over and found a new place to build the water park. The environment is something people must realize we have to take care of because it takes care of us.

Works Cited:

Kate Goldstone, “3 Trillion Trees on Earth, 15 Billion Cut Down Per Year”

Bruce Davidson, “Living among the trees: Five animals that depend on forests”

Arlin Cuncic, How to Manage Public Speaking Anxiety”

Carolyn Cowan, “How protecting forests and their communities can prevent the next outbreak”