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The blue is the floodplain. About 30 acres of the greenbelt were bulldozed last week and 10 acres of it were cleared and built into houses last year. That whole stretch was a greenbelt full of forest and field, wherein I walked and foraged for years. The backyards of the houses in the new development are all 10,000 sq ft of manicured grass. They used to be bursting with dewberry patches, wild onion, wild oats, mesquites, prickly pear, sugarberries, maple, willow, paloverde, juniper, oak, sunflowers, and so much more. Now the earth is scalped to the bare dirt. The houses are modern abominations, with Teslas and luxury cars parked out front. Probably only migrant tech workers are buying them, because the other side of the creek is classic old east Austin with half the home prices. I’m sick of the indiscriminate clearing of nature in Austin, now even in floodplain greenbelts, which are the last refuge of nature in the area. What little remains is already being used for dumping grounds and homeless camps. Central Texas is one of the longest inhabited areas in all the Americas (15k+ years) because it is so beautiful and resource rich. Look what we’ve done to it now. submitted by /u/PaleoForaging |
