Deforestation For Suburbia

When I first moved from Ohio to a small town in southwest Florida, the land there was hardly developed. Estero was just between the bigger cities or Naples and Fort Myers, and was just beginning to grow in population, communities, and businesses. The neighborhood I moved into was down a long, two lane road with just two or three other neighborhoods in it. Past the two neighborhoods was miles and miles or orange groves. Farmland and wildlife preserves. When I came home to visit from college recently, I was shocked at how much had changed in just five years. New shopping plazas and apartment complexes had sprouted up where there had once been expanses of grass and tall Florida native pines. The long two lane road that my neighborhood sat alongside was now planned to have six lanes in the upcoming year-- four extra lanes that would cut into the forest on the lefthand side of the road. The forest that had already been partially demolished and replaced with a new gated community. The community that I lived in for four years was called The preserve, for it's man made lakes between houses, and small forest-like areas. Yet, the urbanization in the once small town is ironically the exact opposite of preservation.