Carnage The forest across the street had been growing for at least 50 years. God only knows how many natural lives it had nurtured, but I can tell you that it certainly nurtured my life, natural or not. I had always regarded it as a friend and a teacher—a permanent part of the landscape. What the hell was I thinking? Two days after the woodcutters hired by The Developer Who Must Not Be Named, a quarter of the woods was reduced to tree stumps and wood chips. I'd heard said developer had an ecological conscience, but as I watched the carnage being done, with professionalism and efficiency—I can't fault the woodcutters, who turned out to be nice guys—I was appalled at the scale of the clear-cut, as well as mystified: this was supposed to be an enlightened development? What BS. "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us," wrote pioneer conservationist Aldo Leopold. "When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Too late for that. Sadly, very sadly, too damned late for that.