“Wilderness, Development Clash Every Day”, was the title of a short article in the USA Today newspaper. And naturally, the word “wilderness” caught my eye which prompted me to read on. In the very first sentence of the report concerning Cache County, Utah, I learned the real clash is between development and the local wildlife. It was described as “so severe…that wildlife officers respond almost every day to reports of dead and injured deer and other wild animals.” The regional wildlife manager for Utah’s Wildlife Resources was quoted in saying, “There’s been a lot of urban encroachment…in areas that we consider winter habitat for these animals. The animals go where it’s easy to walk, like where developers are building subdivisions and cul-de-sacs.” He went on to say, “There are complaints of deer, elk, moose and even barn owls wandering around neighborhoods.

Other than the fact that the new residents are messing up their vehicles by running over the local critter population, how can they complain and what did they expect to find in the wilderness? As a young boy growing up in the country, I’ve heard complaints like these before; so I wasn’t amazed to read this. But, you just can’t help feeling a bit sorry for these displaced animals in Utah. The article goes on to report, “…that when officers encounter a slightly injured animal they try and move it back toward its environment.” That’s a pretty tough job considering that the developers are daily shrinking that very environment. And what can you do for barn owls aimlessly wandering around a barn-less neighborhood?

As most of you know, Michigan isn’t exempt from urban encroachment and loss of wildlife habitat; forfeited to residential and commercial development. For example, the land behind my home once was several hundred acres of abandoned farm ground. It lay undisturbed for many years previous to our moving into the subdivision.
Every summer the weeds grew almost shoulder high and in the autumn the frost knocked them down to a knee high tangled mess. It was perfect! A healthy population of ring neck pheasants flourished and for a little novelty; so did a family of red fox. We would see deer occasionally pass along the edge created by the field meeting our mowed backyard. Almost every house on our street that backed up to the field had a woodchuck living under their storage barn and rabbits building nests in the shrubbery. There is a drainage ditch running down the end of the field with a stand of mature trees on the opposite side. The ditch usually hosts at least one pair of nesting mallards each year and also houses the spring peeper choir. From the tree tops somewhere in the timber, Great Horned owls can be heard if you’re outside at the right time of night. I wasn’t too enthused about moving into a subdivision, back then, but all of this made it tolerable.

Fast forward seventeen years. The land behind our house was bought by a commercial developer with big plans. The field disappeared beneath a big box store, a strip mall and acres of asphalt parking lots. To his credit, the developer knew he should try and separate our homes from the stores and did. He excavated a continuous twenty foot high earthen berm that blocks out the new development from our view. The ditch and wood lot beyond remains, but most of the wildlife and more importantly the field habitat is gone.
Is it fair to compare what happened behind my house in Michigan to the “severe clash” they’re having out in Utah? For the sake of wildlife and habitat conservation, yes it is. All over our State new land development is slowly changing what we have; condensing the remaining habitat for wildlife to a fraction of what it could be. Of course one could say farm land isn’t natural habitat, but it sure beats parking lots.
Encroachment is especially troubling considering the number of vacant and unused buildings. These exist not only in the core of cities, but they’re plentiful in most suburbs, too. The big box store built behind my home was abandoned by the retail chain so they could relocate to a more desirable location on unused property less than a mile away. The developer has leased half of the first building, but the rest of it remains vacant. Recently, two different tire stores were built in our suburb while a hardly used, similar building sets empty just blocks away. Habitat is continuously disappearing all over our State. It’s a victim, of new development, being sacrificed to the greed for new and supposedly more desirable places to live, shop and work.      
   
So, who am I to dictate to other people on what they do with their land? I’m not totally opposed to future land development. But, as sportsmen we need to lead the promotion of recycling developed land to help preserve wildlife habitat. It’s just plain selfish to continue down the path we’re on of unchecked development with little regard given to preserving our valuable wild places.The woods and fields of Michigan are part our outdoors legacy to pass on to future generations.